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M Bakhtin

Rabelais and His World Paperback – August 1, 1984

by Mikhail Bakhtin (Author), M M Bakhtin (Author), Helene Iswolsky (Translator)

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This classic work by the Russian philosopher and literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) examines popular humor and folk culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. One of the essential texts of a theorist who is rapidly becoming a major reference in contemporary thought, Rabelais and His World is essential reading for anyone interested in problems of language and text and in cultural interpretation.

Print length

484 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Indiana University Press
Publication date

August 1, 1984
Dimensions

5.81 x 1.29 x 8.54 inches
ISBN-10

0253348307
ISBN-13

978-0253348302
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M. M. Bakhtin
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Mikhail Bakhtin
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Francois Rabelais
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Ken Hirschkop
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Mikhail Bakhtin
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M. M. Bakhtin
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Francois Rabelais
86
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Francois Rabelais
25
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Johan Huizinga
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M. M. Bakhtin
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This book is double-voiced: it is doing two things simultaneously, for the multitude of shattered unities we call revolution brings forth texts with peculiar forms of unity. At one level it is a guidebook for its times, and at another level it is a contribution to historical poetics with time and place.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Indiana University Press; Midland Book ed. edition (August 1, 1984)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 484 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0253348307
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0253348302
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.81 x 1.29 x 8.54 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,910,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,199 in French Literary Criticism (Books)
- #4,208 in French Literature (Books)
- #5,909 in Medieval Literary Criticism (Books)

Customer Reviews:
44 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		70%
4 star		16%
3 star		6%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		7%

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george mchugh

As the Market is to the State, the Carnavalesque is to the Church

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2020

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Groundbreaking work of comparative literature and simultaneously a heroic crypto-critique of Soviet Russia and draconian institutions.

Not only a critique, but also the cure. 5/5

2 people found this helpful

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Ernesto Hernandez

Excellent book in excellent condition

Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2022

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Love my book. It is in excellent condition and arrived very promptly. Great transaction!

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Barbara D.

Not a story, great critical theory tools

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2017

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This isn't a narrative - it's critical theory. Bakhtin explains the tropes and history surrounding Rabelais' Gargantua. Very helpful tool for the student of comedy. Serious critical thought on comedic devices and meaning.

3 people found this helpful

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The queen

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2018

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thank you

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Chuck

Unique and ground-breaking

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2003

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This is simply the best analysis of the "Carnivalesque" and is a valuable preface to Rabelais' novel itself. Bakhtin's book alerts the reader of Rabelais to his (Rabelais') masterful use of language and explores the sources of medieval popular culture that served his purposes. I have enjoyed Rabelais with much deeper understanding having first read Bakhtin.
Bakhtin and Rabelais both negotiated cultural minefields to produce their works. Both deserve to be more widely read.

38 people found this helpful

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Jessica

Great book, very interesting

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2015

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Great book, very interesting. Got it for a Theatre History of the Carnivalesque class, it's quickly become a favorite on my bookshelf.

2 people found this helpful

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Martin Asiner

Rabelais' World Is One That Cries Out For Freedom

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2011

Those who come to RABELAIS AND HIS WORLD by Mikhail Bakhtin with little or no knowledge of either the author or his topic are likely to find the first chapter arcane and scholarly but all the following ones engrossing if not gross. It helps to know that Mikhail Bakhtin grew up in post-Czarist Russia, lived through the terrors of Lenin and the worse evils of Stalin. As an academic, Bakhtin well knew of the stifling intellectual and social tyranny of his native Russia. He grew to prize freedom because he had so little of it. Slowly, he developed the thesis that of all the literary genres he could use as a bully pulpit to exhort his fellow countrymen to seek liberty it was only the novel that held any promise. Bakhtin saw the novel in a manner totally unlike any of his contemporaries. For him, a novelist like Dostoevsky or Rabelais could people his novels with characters who could speak their lines not as a mouthpiece for the author (monologic) but as a collective howl of pain of those whose voices might otherwise be stilled (dialogic). In his mind, the novel became synonymous as a tool of literary freedom, and thus dangerous to the Powers That Be. Bakhtin uses Rabelais as the focal point for his thesis that the spirit for freedom of an oppressed people can never be halted only delayed. He notes that Rabelais, who lived in the 16th century, wrote GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL, an extended fiction that permitted and encouraged a carnivalesque atmosphere in which the commoner, the fool, the prostitute, and other dispossessed voices could for one single day shout out their derision at an otherwise dominant power structure. No royalty or government VIP would be safe from vituperation. Bakhtin writes that in the fiction of Rabelais, there is an inordinate excess of bodily excretions, all of which must have been profoundly shocking to the prim and sedate readers of Bakhtin's own day. but not, he notes, to the more liberated readers of Rabelais' day. Bakhtin describes a society of bluenoses just before and after Rabelais' time in which the dominant ruling classes surely took egregious offense at the very notion that an oppressed majority of commoners would dare to upbraid their betters with scatological comments and actions.

RABELAIS AND HIS WORLD is not light reading. The reader soon discovers that Bakhtin assumes an immense erudition on their part. Bakhtin drops names of painters, writers, and assorted intellectuals with what seems crushing frequency. This, however, is no insurmountable obstacle as his basic points are clear enough. For those who manage to digest the complete book and are intrigued enough to learn more of the technical aspects of his worldview, such patient and motivated readers would do well to read Bakhtin's seminal article on the multiplicity of voices in the novel, "Discourse in the Novel." But even if not, just this one book is quite enough to remind us that the quest for freedom is rarely neat and clean. RABELAIS AND HIS WORLD is a powerful if messy wake up call for those who might otherwise forget.

35 people found this helpful

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Highly relevant to today's popular culture and mass media

Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2014

This is highly readable and will strike you as highly relevant to today's popular culture and mass media, where the lower classes and the middle classes can enjoy role reversals, both portrayed by fictional characters and where one directly plays out fantasies for a day or two. As social critique, as necessary and sanctioned venting of anger.

We are talking amusement parks, paintball, Carnaval, Mardi Gras, spring break in Daytona Beach, Halloween, drag queen contests, proms, princessy weddings, strip clubs, etc., you name it.

Just fascinating that all this had medieval and possibly earlier roots.

7 people found this helpful

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Jeff Betz

great book

Reviewed in Canada on December 21, 2020

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great book

Gobolino

Très bon livre

Reviewed in France on October 15, 2013

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Une approche inégalée de la notion de carnaval au temps de Rabelais. Une approche théorique sûre et une verve saisissante.

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mark schwalbe

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 26, 2016

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vgood

Alexa T

Good find

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2014

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The book arrived promptly. I was looking for this one for a while, so I was very happy to find it. It has some pages hand-written on, but otherwise in good condition.

One person found this helpful

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