For this appetizer presentation, I’m interested in looking at the parodies of Church liturgy/music/the Bible and so forth as Bakhtin mentions in his list of the carnivalesque. As a Catholic myself, I want to explore some of these parodies and examine who was writing them and what the content is like (i.e. offensive or actually funny, though of course that’s objective.) From what I’ve seen, it’s a mix of both. What is the canivalesque nature of these parodies?
Priests and monks were often the authors of these works, and I think we can assume not all of them wanted to take down the Church. Of course, others joined for the educational opportunities, not for religious reasons, and could have seriously hated the Church. Can you create something that makes fun or has fun without meaning real offense? I think so, but additionally, did the authors mean it this way? Can you be religious and still write something offensive/sacrilegious? A big part of the carnivalesque is the degradation of sacred and serious, but I think people should still be laughing with, not at, anything else. I’m 100% biased though, since I am religious, and I’d love for anyone to call me out as they see fit on this fact too.
I’m honestly still waiting on a book to come in from the library (ordered on Friday!), but I hope to choose a chunk of something that most people in class would probably recognize (the Our Father, for instance) and share it. This kind of parody is proving difficult to find in English translation though, so it may be that I have little choice. Depending on what exactly I can find, I will either hold a discussion about it, OR have a couple brave volunteers (perhaps including myself, if no one will step up) read and perform the piece in front of the class.
