Robert Anchor's  Bakhtin's Truth of Laughter

          In His 1994 literary criticism titled Bakhtin's Truth of Laughter, Robert Anchor explores the ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin's carnivalesque. Anchor defines the idea of the carnivalesque, or in his words, “the culture of laughter” as a “dissolution of hierarchy in all spheres of life” (24). Carnival or the culture of laughter is described as a source of freedom, protest, opposites, distortion, unity, equality, and regeneration. He explains “the culture of laughter’s” place in history, and it’s application to literature. In his own words, Anchor explains "The purpose of this essay is to present a coherent account of the main lines of Bakhtin’s thought, especially the relationship between his conception of carnival and his ideas concerning language and literature" (17). Anchor explores the different theories and various critics that have addressed language in literature as well as Bakhtin’s position relative to theirs. He dives into Bakhtin’s thoughts on language which can be summarized as the meaning that exists in language is not found in what is said, or by who said it. It is not found in purely the speaker of a text or the listener. The meaning in language is found in the interaction between the two. He also stresses the importance of the inner voice of the characters and how it reveals the strength of a character's connection to the rest of that character's society.

          The main things that  I want to engage with in this criticism are the concepts of carnival or the “culture of laughter” and it’s symbolism in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. I would also like to dive deeper into the regenerative abilities of carnival, specifically how it is expressed in Feste’s final song.