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Abstract ″Outsideness″ has similar significance as ″polyphonic dialogism″ in the construction of Bakhtin's literary theory. As a perspective, a notion, as well as a theory, the use of ″outsideness″ has accumulated in discussions which can be traced through Bakhtin's whole academic life. It has been approached from different perspectives and can be further categorized into aesthetics, ethical , and cognitive outsideness, which are studied from those perspectives respectively. Bakhtin's concept of ″outsideness″ starts from his literary studies, in discussions about the relation between an author and their protagonist in narrative art. In this context, ″outsideness″ refers to the situation in which the author exists as a form-constructor in terms of time, space and meaning. Outsideness can also be developed from artistic creation, from which the author can actively build up an aesthetic power. The outsideness that an author acquires with respect to their protagonist can function as a basic condition under which an artistic world is created. The aesthetic outsideness constructed by Bakhtin in his early studies on the relation between an author and the protagonist in artistic creation has been extensively studied by academicians. In his later years, Bakhtin emphasized cognitive outsideness in particular from the perspective of cultural philosophy, and yet this has not been fully explored. The cognitive outsideness constructed by Bakhtin in cultural philosophy has great potential.to provide insightful and doctrinal support for literary studies, especially in the field of comparative and world literature,, and it can also provide guidance for cross-cultural studies in general or practices in particular. ″Outsideness″ was regarded as a precondition for studying the ″cultural other″ by Bakhtin, and it is a powerful leverage to promote creative understanding of cultural outsideness in the humanities.. As a scholar, Bakhtin is not only a constructor of outsideness, but also a practitioner who has contributed an exemplary interpretation of Rabelais's novels. His adoption of ″outsideness″ as a means of leverage into the other's culture in order to achieve creative understanding can be regarded as a conscious application initiated by a critic of foreign literature. Dialogue in the sense of Bakhtin's researches cannot be willfully simplified. His concept of dialogue possesses its implication with humanistic spirit, and it is a dialogue in contrast with a monologue. If retrieved back to the system and context of Bakhtin discourse, dialogue calls for a creative understanding proposed by Bakhtin, and can only be conducted from the perspective of outsideness. Based on the creative understanding from the standpoint of ″outsideness″, we could enter into the dialogues implied by Bakhtin. We should conduct dialogues from the perspective of the other and pursue creative understanding, for they are helpful in preserving the humanistic character of literary studies. Meanwhile, it is crucial to follow Bakhtin's ″polyphonic dialogism″ from the perspective of ″outsideness″, for it is conducive to ″hearing″ the living voices that a subject is expressing and speaking, and beneficial to the pursuit of humanitarianism of literary studies as well.
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