The thesis discusses medieval forms of culture of popular laughter or carnival culture in the novel Jamnica by Lovro Kuhar – Prežihov Voranc (1893–1950), based on Bakhtin's theory of carnival as he built and defined it in reference to works about the giants Gargantua and Pantagruel by the French author François Rabelais from the 16th century. The study initially addresses the famous Russian philosopher, literary theorist, and art historian Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (1895–1975), explains his theory of carnival and defines the concept of carnivalized literature. It further outlines the aesthetic conception of the figurative system of the medieval culture of popular laughter. In the empirical part, the thesis introduces an explanation of the broader context of the creation of the novel Jamnica with an emphasis on the type-genre definition of the collective novel. It then detects and analyzes elements of the culture of popular laughter in the novel. Although Jamnica is not a fully carnivalized literary work, it shows many important elements of forms of the culture of popular laughter, where the thesis particularly highlights individual scenes that are characterized by a festive carnival spirit, folk festive feasting images, and a grotesque body.
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