The Russian critic M.M. Bakhtin has recently become a major figure in contemporary theory beyond his traditional influence in Slavic literary studies. ""Bakhtin in Contexts"" explores the revolutionary impact Bakhtin's ideas have carried in contemporary discussions of language, art, culture and social science in recent years. The contributors represent a broad range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, epitomizing the views of Russian and American specialists in those fields Bakhtin often referred to as ""the human sciences"".