The «Ideologem» as a New Entity of Consciousness and as a Basis for Individuation (the case of the Bakhtin circle)

Abstract

The interest of the contribution by Valentin Volochinov—one of the authors of the “Circle of Mr. Bakhtin”— to the current linguistic discussions about identitemes in language and discourse consists, first, in the fact that it proposes an “emotional” definition of communication and of linguistic community (in particular in terms of “appraisal” or “assessment”). Second, Volochinov proposes an “ethnopsychological” definition; and finally, he sketches an original conception of the identity function of language, a conception fixed by the curious concept of “ideologem”. According to Volochinov, a minimal unit of identity has an aesthetic nature. In connection with aesthetic debates at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such a unit appears as an “impression-expression” entity. It is a property of verbal consciousness, defined as an expressive consciousness and designated by the term “ideological sign” or “ideologem”. It is a subjective or individual component as a sublimation of the collective. It is a sign of the adherence of an individual consciousness to a point of view, an “assessment” or an “attitude” of the individual, a language group or community.