Abstract
The present article returns to Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of carnival in order to reconsider the role that the nineteenth-century writer Nikolai Gogol plays for Bakhtin in that theory’s elaboration, from Bakhtin’s earliest writings on the subject in the late 1930s to the publication of his study of Rabelais in 1965 and the companion essay on Rabelais and Gogol in 1972. Whereas Bakhtin’s published works seem to present Gogol as an exemplary manifestation of carnival in the modern period, his notebooks point us toward a more negative reading of Gogol: as carnival’s nemesis—specifically, as the disorganizing intrusion of allegory into the allegedly organic and symbolic political order that carnival claims as its source and its strength.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.