Bakhtin’s Spirit of Carnival in Hamadhānī’s Maqāmāt

The Russian literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin was the first scholar who introduced the term “carnival” and conceptualized it into literary field. In his acclaimed work, Rabelais and His World, Bakhtin discusses in great detail the sixteenth century French writer Rabelais’ works, Gargantua and Pantagruel. In Rabelais’ works, the two main characters Gargantua and his son Pantagruel, are characterized through exaggeration of their behavior and grotesque body images, among other things. For example, the giant Gargantua was born from his mother’s left ear. “As soon as he was born, he cried out not as other babes use to do, miez, miez, miez, but with a high, sturdy, and big voice shouted about, Some drink, some drink, some drink, as inviting all the world to drink with him” (Rabelais 9).