For my appetizer, I would like to ask if a person with a disease/illness can take part in the carnival. This idea was partially inspired by my having been sick twice this month, but I was also truck by Bruegel’s Battle Between Carnival and Lent. This piece shows multiple amputees, which were absent in The Peasant Dance.
A massive component of Carnival is movement. During Carnival moments, people are dancing and touching one another. The Grotesque focuses on “too much” of a functioning body—too much food, too much sex, a body too big. If a person has a chronic disease, can they still partake in carnival? If their body brings them pain, how does that affect their experience of the Grotesque?
For this activity, I plan on showing a selection of images from Bruegel and a relevant quote from Bakhtin. I will then ask the class to draw/write an image of how they think they could partake in the Carnival or Grotesque on a day that they do not feel at their best and ask people if they want to share.
I think this is a really interesting idea! I’ve learned a little bit about disability in the classical world from other classes, but I would have never thought to include the carnival. Since disease and the carnival/grotesque tend to be defined by bodies, I think this will be an important point to examine in our pursuit of the carnivalesque!
This is a really interesting way of looking at the carnivalesque! I definitely remember there being several amputees in Bruegel’s Battle Between Carnival and Lent.
In terms of illness, I wonder if Bakhtin has anything to say about possible curative properties of the carnivalesque? And I think it would also be interesting to not only consider physical illness, but mental illness as well. How are conditions like depression or eating disorders incorporated into such festivities?
I am really excited for your presentation!!
Really looking forward to this, Juliana! I think you’ll find a number of passages where Bakhtin discusses illness as an element of carnival, although it’s not always clear what he means. Rabelais himself was, among other things, a physician, so there’s a lot of interest in medicine and illness in his work. There are also some interesting pieces in the Fat Studies Reader exploring links between disability and body shape that you might find interesting. Can’t wait to see what you come up with! You can find the full (searchable) texts of both Bakhtin’s Rabelais and His World and the Fat Studies reader on the resources page here: https://farmer.sites.haverford.edu/csts202/resources/.