Overall, I really enjoyed this course, it opened my perspective to the ways that bodies are represented in media, especially modern and classical literature. I always knew what carnival and grotesque things are but this class allowed me to think about the way that people are portrayed and how much that says about the message of the piece. Now while watching tv or playing games I randomly think is this carnivalesque/grotesque and why. There were times where I was disgusted and delighted within the texts. I enjoyed the Petronius and Gargantua/Pantagruel texts the most and relating them back to Bahktin’s theory. The format of the course makes sense because after learning about Bahtkin and Rabelais we find their relevance in later texts and in our own consumption of media. Even though we were online for the fourth part of the class, at least we had the tools for analysis while off-campus.
The workload was not overwhelming especially on top of the biology track at Haverford. The blog posts were a good way to bring the discussion outside of class or to explore a topic more deeply. For the fourth quarter, the work decrease was helpful especially since I was reading the texts on my laptop which was not preferable. I looked forward to classes and the discussion of appetizer presentations. I enjoyed the appetizers as a way to see the variation of the carnivalesque and grotesque in media that I haven’t been exposed to yet. Even with the current pandemic, we managed a way to still have the course maximize our learning while off campus and online. Although, being off campus provided limitations to presentation opportunities I was still able to learn much from my peers. The move to online was a tough transition at first especially with reading texts online and being removed from classroom discussion.
I came into this class with no grand expectations and am glad that I decided on this one. I learned much and did not know who Bahktin or Rabelais were. Now that we have learned about the terms grotesque and carnivalesque, I will be knowledgeable in future classes and in day to day life about the grotesque and carnivalesque.
