Russian Formalism and Marxism look, at first glance, like opposites of each other: the former is about “form,” concerned with the aesthetic value of artistic work, while the latter is about “content,” concentrating on the ideology of literature. The former tends to find the values of a work within the work itself, and the latter emphasizes a moralistic and utilitarian view of art. The difference can be summarized as intrinsic versus extrinsic. Despite these seemingly opposite standpoints in their basic attitudes, Russian Formalism and Marxism, as dueling theories under the same historical circumstance, influenced each other greatly. Throughout the history of literary criticism, members of Russian Formalism and Marxism have attempted to reconcile the former's emphasis on the artistic device with the latter’s dialectics. In this regard, Mikhail Bakhtin’s achievements in “translinguistics” or “historical poetics” were crucial to this reconciling movement.