HANDOUT ON BAKTHIN AND RABELAIS
What's here
Francois Rabelais was born around 1494. He wrote Gargantua and Pantagruel from 1532 to 1552, and he died in 1553. For the sake of comparison, here are the dates for other pre-modern and early modern authors: Dante (1265-1321); Chaucer (1343-1400); Cervantes (1547-1616); Shakespeare (1564-1616).
Principal characters in Gargantua and Pantagruel
1. Some commentators have criticized Bakhtin for romanticizing and idealizing medieval folk culture. Do you see any grounds for that kind of criticism?
2. Other commentators have argued that Bakhtin's work on Rabelais and carnival culture is a veiled critique of Soviet communism. These commentators often point to Bakhtin's claim that medieval people "built a second world and a second life outside officialdom" (197). How far would you want to go with this sort of argument? What other examples or passages could be cited in support of the argument?
3. Scholars have also asked if Bakhtin's analysis of carnival culture could be the basis for some discussion of contemporary popular culture. To what extent do movies, pop music, TV, and the internet (can't forget about the net) resemble the medieval carnival; and to what extent do they differ from it? Do movies, music, TV, etc. create a "second life" for us? If so, what is our "first life"? Do most of us even have a life outside the media? Interesting questions to keep in mind as you get ready for our discussion of postmodernism . . .
4. Can you think of modern or postmodern equivalents for the kinds of speech described on pages 203-4? Do people continue to employ those kinds of speech? Do people on TV shows or in movies count? What might Bakhtin say about catch phrases like "Heh heh heh," "D'oh!" or "Show me the money"?
5. What do you make of Bakhtin's literary interests and loves? Why would a person who loves Dostoevsky also love Rabelais? What (if anything) do those two writers have in common?
6. Why does Bakthin think that Rabelais saw no sacrilege in combining religious language with scatological imagery? Do you agree with his claim that in Rabelais such images are "devoid of cynicism and coarseness in our sense of the words" (211)?
7. Does Bakhtin have anything in common with either Derrida or Foucault? What are the chief differences among these thinkers? What do you suppose a Derridean or Foucauldian might say about Bakhtin? And what would a Bakhtinian say about Derrida and/or Foucault?