Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (Russian: Михаил Михайлович Бахти́н, pronounce [mʲɪxʌˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪʨ bʌxˈtʲin]) (November 17, 1895 – March 7, 1975) was a Russian philosopher, literary critic, semiotician and scholar who wrote influential works of literary and rhetorical theory and criticism. His works, dealing with a variety of subjects, have inspired groups of thinkers such as neo-Marxists, structuralists, and semioticians, who have all incorporated Bakhtinian ideas into theories of their own. Among the circle of Russian/Soviet writers who made important contributions to aesthetic analysis during the first third of the 20th Century (including Yury Tynyanov and Boris Eikhenbaum), Bakhtin has been the main contributor; he was among the leaders of the formalist circle in Leningrad who helped develop a new "materialistic" view of Russian literature. After some time out of favour, his work has recently become fashionable once more.