THTR 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Mikhail Bakhtin, Carnivalesque
Document Summary
Roman saturnalia: winter solstice, masters and servants. Medieval lent: farewell meat, incorporate pagan festivals into christianity. 18th century europe: public festivals to private salons. Caribbean and mardi gras: of-shoot of european, louisiana, south america, caribbean: free and escaped slaves (cid:1) Refers to a literary type (or genre) that subverts and liberates through humor and chaos. In fact, carnival does not know footlights a theatrical event : rabelais and his word (cid:1) Blurring of boundaries between high and low, inside of the body and out, public and private. Relishes in the sensual, the sexual, and the grotesque. In reality it is life itself, but shaped according to a certain pattern of play (cid:1) Apparently purposeless yet attractive: pleasurable, diminished self-consciousness. Huizinga, homoludens: outside of the ordinary, not serious, and utterly absorbing, no material interest or proit can be gained from it, creates its own time, space, and rules, promotes the formation of social groupings (cid:1) (cid:1)
