Abstract
The work of the Monty Python team—pre, post and during the run of Monty Python’s Flying Circus—would appear to be self-evidently carnivalesque, and a Bakhtinian analysis of their work would perhaps be “too obvious.” This is particularly true of the work of Terry Gilliam in films such as Brazil and The Fisher King. Nevertheless, a more informed Bakhtinian appraisal of his work that goes beyond a superficial understanding of the carnivalesque and grotesque reveals much about the work of the Pythons and understanding the Pythonesque. Rick Hudson’s “Grotesque Unrealism: Terry Gilliam’s Jabberwocky” focuses on Gilliam, specifically his film Jabberwocky, and subjects it to an in-depth Bakhtinian analysis to explore the fusions and conflicts between the comic and the horrific that underscore his films.
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Notes
- 1.
Jacques Le Goff, The Medieval Imagination (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1995).
- 2.
Melvyn Bragg, The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language (London: Sceptre, 2003), 74.
- 3.
F. Anne Payne. Chaucer and Menippean Satire (University of Wisconsin, 1981).
- 4.
Ibid., 4.
- 5.
Mikhail Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984), 115.
- 6.
Payne, Chaucer and Menippean Satire, 4.
- 7.
Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, 112–113.
- 8.
Ibid., 113.
- 9.
Ibid., 121.
- 10.
Ibid., 114.
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
Ibid., 114–118.
- 13.
Ibid., 118.
- 14.
Ibid., 118–19.
- 15.
Robert Stam, Subversive Pleasure: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism & Film (Baltimore & London: The John Hopkins Press), 158.
- 16.
Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984), 6.
- 17.
Rick Hudson, “The Derelict Fairground: A Bakhtinian Analysis of the Graphic Novel Medium,” CEA Critic, 72.3 (2010), 36–38.
- 18.
Ibid., 38.
- 19.
Jack Morgan, The Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature & Film (Carbondale IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002), 25–26.
- 20.
Ibid., 144.
Bibliography
Bakhtin, Mikhail. Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984.
Bragg, Melvyn. The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language. London: Sceptre, 2003.
Hudson, Rick. “The Derelict Fairground: A Bakhtinian Analysis of the Graphic Novel Medium.” CEA Critic, 72.3 (2010): 33–47.
Le Goff, Jacques. The Medieval Imagination. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Morgan, Jack. The Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature & Film. Carbondale IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2002.
Payne, F. Anne. Chaucer and Menippean Satire. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 1981.
Stam, Robert. Subversive Pleasure: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism & Film. Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins Press, 1989.
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Hudson, R. (2017). Grotesque Unrealism: Terry Gilliam’s Jabberwocky . In: Reinsch, P., Whitfield, B., Weiner, R. (eds) Python beyond Python. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51385-0_6
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