Bakhtin's Carnival Laughter and the Cajun Country Mardi Gras

Bibliographic Data

ID5836030
AuthorsCarl Lindahl (0000-0002-2378-3859, University of Houston, corresponding author)
Year1996
Volume107
Issue1-2
Pages57-70
Publication date1996-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFolklore (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0015587x.1996.9715915
OpenAlexW1988574657
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited27

M.M. Bakhtin's social construction of Renaissance carnivals, and his views on carnival in general, encounter trouble when tested against a presentday enactment, the Cajun country Courir de Mardi Gras, a processional begging ritual celebrated in southern Louisiana. The living festival reveals structures missing from Bakhtin's élite sources and consequently from his writings: structures that articulate the folk community's autonomous values and cooperative survival strategies. As long as literary studies based on Bakhtin find in carnival only that which opposes élite culture, they will fail to recognise the dimensions of community selfcelebration and self-definition essential to many folk festivals

Laughter · Linguistics and Language Studies · Literature, Language, and Rhetoric Studies · Media, Communication, and Education

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