Culture of Popular Laughter

Carnival and debauchery is also a running theme in the paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, painted during the 16th century.

The Culture of Popular Laughter is a historical-anthropological theory devised by the literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin, first published in the book Rabelais and His World, based on observations of popular culture in the Renaissance. Bakhtin analysed François Rabelais' book Gargantua and Pantagruel and its portrayals of "grotesque realism" (i.e. celebrations of primary needs) and carnival in which social norms were subverted.

The Culture of Popular Laughter combines two literary ideas developed by Bakhtin in the same work: the idea of "Grotesque body" and "Carnivalesque" debauchery. It is distinguished from each, however, by its applications outside literary theory.

Carnivalesque

The idea of "Carnivalesque" was also created by Bakhtin and forms part of his wider theory of Popular Laughter. He argued that, during times of carnival such as the Feast of Fools, social norms were deliberately turned upside-down. The carnival then became a form of Safety-valve institution, which served a Structural-functionalist role to temporarily release stresses in the contemporary social system.^[1] Bakhtin, however, argued that this form of system was "formalized" in the culture of the period as "popular laughter".

Scope and influence

The historian Gábor Klaniczay argued that the Culture of Popular Laughter stretched through all echelons of society and was certainly not restricted to the peasantry.^[2] Bakhtin's theory has also been credited with bringing about a scholarly reassessement of the importance of popular culture in history.^[3]

Examples

The Culture of Popular Laughter was originally formulated based on the writings of Rabelais, but has also been applied in the interpretation of peasant scenes painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his descendants.^[4] The example has also been applied to Japanese society.^[5]

References

1. Klaniczay, Gábor (1990). The Uses of Supernatural Power: the Transformation of Popular Religion in Medieval and Early-modern Europe. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 12. ISBN 0691073775.
2. Klaniczay, Gábor (1990). The Uses of Supernatural Power: the Transformation of Popular Religion in Medieval and Early-modern Europe. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 17. ISBN 0691073775.
3. Klaniczay, Gábor (1990). The Uses of Supernatural Power: the Transformation of Popular Religion in Medieval and Early-modern Europe. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 24. ISBN 0691073775.
4. Gibson, Walter S. (2006). Pieter Bruegel and the Art of Laughter (1st ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 33. ISBN 0520245210.
5. de Wil, Theodore; et al. (2001). Sources of Japanese tradition from earliest times-1600. 1 (2nd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. 471. ISBN 0231121393.