Bakhtin & Hitler's Language

 In  Bakhtin’s Discourse in the Novel, he talks about how language is a verbal art that is based on both “Form and content in discourse are one, once we understand that verbal discourse is a phenomenon,” (259). Based on the author’s style of a novel, the reader is able to interpret the novel from not just the author’s perspective but from how the author has created this form of style. Bakhtin states how, “dialogue is no static model of speaker making utterance to listener concerning hero. The three elements of the dialogue speak, listen, and influence each other equivalently,” (596). He also states how the combining of language and style is present in the novel, "Such a combining of languages and styles in to a higher unity is unknown to traditional stylistics;... among language that is present in the novel,"(263).

Bakhtin reshaped the rhetorical triangle allowing the speaker, hero and listener to become invoked until they each influence each other. This concept best represents Burkes essay called The Rhetoric of Hitler’s Battle, as he argues about how Hitler’s use of rhetorical language within his speeches were able to inspire the Aryans, to see that the Jewish people should not exist in the same level as themselves, even though his motives were dark.  Burke states how Hitler was able to connect with his audience, his people, by emphasizing on the strength of unity, how they are united with a common goal, “the symbol of a common enemy, the Prince of Evil himself. Men who can unite on nothing else can unite on the basis of a foe shared by all,” (193).

Burke states how Hitler was able to grab the attention of his audience and connect with them socially based on the symbolism, main ingredient of Hitler’s speech’s involving the movement, of unity. Hitler believed that the unifying of the people could allow them to put action towards their said enemy, the Jews, so that they could hate them together , “The more uniformly the fighting will of a people is put into action, the greater will be the magnetic force of the movement and the more powerful the impetus of the blow,” (193).  This happens even today in society, for example, if a person is being persuaded by a group or organization that another group is very uncivilized, how they do unusual things that could cause the individual to feel uncomfortable when being around them because they behave in a different manner than others, and they are proven this claim while consistently being told this, then that person is capable of believing the words that were told to them. This is exactly what Hitler himself, had succeeded in doing through the use of language and rhetoric within his speech, Burke even discusses this about Hitler in the text when he says how, "...enemies must always be regarded as one in such a way that in the opinion of the mass of one's adherents the war is being waged against one enemy alone. This strengthens the belief in one's own cause..."(194). 

Hitler's inspirational orator on unity, best focuses on what Bakhtin was arguing and stating about how language is more than just the blending of thoughts, but it can also have or show different intentions, “Style is language, that to create a style is to create a language for oneself," (598). Bakhtin also states how language is created by the intelligence of humans, "Language is thus fundamental not only to learning, but to mind; it both creates and is created by the human intelligence.When we speak and write, we create ourselves and the world," (598).  He states how the meaning from language is created by us, humans, but also how we create ourselves when we write and communicate through dialogue, "When we speak and write, we create ourselves and the world. No intellectual construct-no expression or idea-can exist without language, and language is itself continuously interactive in its nature," (598).

-Daphne Britt

**Comment for Kelshay Toomer Blog Post:
Hi! Kelshay you have helped me realized  just how intelligent Hitler really was, even though his actions were horrid. When you stated how Hitler viewed the Aryans as constructive and the Jews as destructive, it really made sense to see just how persuasive his use of language truly was. "Aryans are constructive and the Jews are destructive... in order for the Aryans to be constructive and prosper as a whole he had to destruct the Jews," (Burke 204) This to me really shows Hitler as a strong orator when dealing with how he wants the audience to connect with him.