Carnivalesque

Venice: Carnival and the City

Hypothesis:

•“The historical function and meaning of the ‘carnivalesque’ is no longer applicable and relevant within modern, contemporary society”

Aims and Objectives• How relevant is Bakhtin’s notion of the

Carnivalesque as a social form of liberation, in highly structurated cultures;

• The relationship between Venice and the carnival, how it has developed historically and how it transgressed in modern society;

• To analyse how Venice is portrayed within popular representations and their validity;

• To study how the effects of leisure, tourism and commercialism have impacted on Venice and the original and historical function of the Carnivalesque.

Research Methodology

•Chris Rojek (1995)- Leisure

•Mikhail Bakhtin (1984)- Carnival and Carnivalesque

•Victor Turner (1982)- Liminality

Secondary Research• The Poetics and Politics of Transgression

(Stallybrass & White, 1986)• The Grotesque in Art & Literature (Wolfgang

Kayser, 1963)• Carnival! (Umberto Eco, 1984)• From Ritual to Theatre (Victor Turner, 1982)• The Condition of Postmodernity (David Harvey,

1989)• Distinction (Pierre Bourdieu, 1979)• Decentring Leisure (Chris Rojek, 1995)

Primary Research: Textual Analysis

•Eyes Wide Shut (2000)•The Talented Mr Ripley (2001)•Casanova (2005)•Death in Venice (1971)•Don’t Look Now (1973)•Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

(1989)•Encounters: The Death of Venice (1995)

Primary Research:Field Trip

• Derives - Random Direction and Classic Derive• Guy Debord and the Situationists (1957)• Field Research;

- Accademia Bridge- Arsenale

Concept (1)Leisure

• “The leisure industry is depicted as a tireless impresario dedicated to the cult of distraction” (Rojek,1995:06)

• “A process by which goods are packaged and sold as objects to the consumer” ( Rojek, 1995:04)

• “Leisure and culture are shaped by the process of commodification” (Rojek, 1995:04).

• “Tourist experience became routinized and mechanical. Many tourists travel through entire continents without wandering very far from their tour bus and pre-arranged hotel room” (Pemble, 1987; Urry, 1990a; Rojek 1993a)

• “Leisure activity is part of the universal market of capitalism and means a web of commodified goods, services and amusements which eliminates any possibility of escape” (1995:13)

Concept (2)Liminality & Habitus and Hexis

• “Redressive machinary: To patch up quarrels, “mend” broken social ties, “seal up punctures” in the “social fabric,” (Turner, 1982:10)

• “Optation pervades the liminoid phenomenon, obligation the liminal” (Turner, 1982: 46)

• “Ideological and political hegemony in any society depends on an ability to control the material context of personal and social experience” (Harvey 1989:226)

Concept (3)Carnival and Carnivalesque • “One official, characterized by the authority of the church, the feudal

system, work, and one unofficial, characterized by reversal, parody, song and laughter” (Vice, 1997:150)

• “Requires that rules and rituals be parodied and that these rules and rituals already be recognized and respected. One must know to what degree certain behaviours are forbidden and must feel the majesty of the forbidding norm, to appreciate their transgression. Without a valid law to break, carnival is impossible.” (Eco, 1984:06)

• “The carnival celebrates temporary liberation from the prevailing truth of the established order; it marks the suspension of all hierarchal rank, privileges, norms and prohibitions.” (Bakhtin, 1984a: 10–11)

• “The grotesque expresses not the fear of death but the fear of life” (Kayser cited in Bakhtin 1984:50).

Concept (3)Carnival and Carnivalesque • “The grotesque expresses not the fear of death but the fear of

life” (Kayser cited in Bakhtin 1984:50).

• “Grotesque realism images the human body as multiple, bulging over-or undersized, protuberant and incomplete. The openings and orifices of this carnival body are emphasised, not its closure and finish” (Stallybrass & White, 1986:09)

• “In grotesque realism the bodily is deeply posited it is presented not in a provert, egotistic form severed from other spheres of life, but as something universal” (Kayser, 1962)

Conclusion• The original meaning of the carnivalesque no

longer functions within modern society;• Leisure and commerce have eradicated the

historical role conceived by Bakhtin;• The original values which existed historically in

the carnival have become distorted and devalued as a result of tourism;

• The carnival in modern society is a direct result of a capitalism;

•

References• Bakhtin, M. (1984) Rabelais and his World. Bloomington: Midland Books, Indiana University PressEco, U. (1984) Carnival!

Berlin: Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul• Cresswell, T. (2004) Place: a short introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing• Giroux, A. (2011) ‘Bakhtin’s Carnival applied to contemporary culture’ [online] available from

http://www.alexandragiroux.net/hello-world [23 January 2012]• Harvey, D. (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity: An inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Oxford: BlackwellWalter de

Gruyter & Co.• Hallestrom, L. (2005) Casanova. [DVD] USA: Touchstone Pictures• Kayser, W. (1962) The Grotesque in Art and Literature. Indiana University Press: USA• Keel, R. (2012) ‘Habitus and Field’ [online] available from http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/3210/3210_lectures/habitus_field.html

[25th March 2012]• Kubrick, S. (2000) Eyes Wide Shut. [DVD] USA: Warner Bros• Lefebvre, H. (1991) The Production of Space. Oxford : Basil Blackwell• Minghella, A. (2001) The Talented Mr Ripley. [DVD] USA: Miramax Films• Not Bored Organisation (2010) Henri Lefebvre on the Situationist International [online] available from

<http://www.notbored.org/lefebvre-interview.html> [05 February 2012]• Plant, S. (1964) The most radical gesture the Situationist International in a postmodern age. London ; New York, NY :

Routledge#• Roeg, N. (1973) Don’t Look Now [DVD] UK: Casey Productions Eldorado Films • Powercube. (2012) ‘Bourdieu and Habitus’ [online] available from

http://www.powercube.net/other-forms-of-power/bourdieu-and-habitus/ [25th March 2012]• Rojek, C. (1995) Decentring Leisure: Rethinking Leisure Theory. London: Sage Publications Ltd.• Stallybrass, P and White, A. (1986) The Politics and Poetics of Transgression. London: Methuen & Co Ltd.• Tisdall, C. (1971) Futurism. London: Thames and Hudson• Turner, V (1982) From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play. London: PAJ Publications • Turner, V. (1979) Frame, Flow and Reflection: Ritual and Drama as Public Liminality. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 6

(4), 465-499• Vice, S. (1997) Introducing Bakhtin. Manchester: Manchester University Press• Webb, D. (2005). Bakhtin at the Seaside . Theory, Culture & Society . 22 (3), 121-138.