Bakhtin was born in Oryol, Russia, to an old family of the nobility. His father was the manager of a bank and worked in several cities. For this reason Bakhtin spent his early childhood years in Oryol, in Vilnius, and then in Odessa, where in 1913 he joined the historical and philological faculty at the local university (the Odessa University). Katerina Clark and Michael Holquist write: "Odessa..., like Vilnius, was an appropriate setting for a chapter in the life of a man who was to become the philosopher of heteroglossia and carnival.

During World War II Bakhtin submitted a dissertation on the French Renaissance writer Francois Rabelais which was not defended until some years later. The controversial ideas discussed within the work caused much disagreement, and it was consequently decided that Bakhtin be denied his higher doctorate. Thus, due to its content, Rabelais and Folk Culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance was not published until 1965, at which time it was given the title Rabelais and His World (Russian: Tvorchestvo Fransua Rable i narodnaia kul'tura srednevekov'ia i Renessansa, Tvorcestvo Fransua Rable i narodnaja kul'tura srednevekov'ja i Renessansa).  In Rabelais and His World, a classic of Renaissance studies, Bakhtin concerns himself with the openness of Gargantua and Pantagruel; however, the book itself also serves as an example of such openness. Throughout the text, Bakhtin attempts two things: he seeks to recover sections of Gargantua and Pantagruel that, in the past, were either ignored or suppressed, and conducts an analysis of the Renaissance social system in order to discover the balance between language that was permitted and language that was not. It is by means of this analysis that Bakhtin pinpoints two important subtexts: the first is carnival (carnivalesque) which Bakhtin describes as a social institution, and the second is grotesque realism which is defined as a literary mode. Thus, in Rabelais and His World Bakhtin studies the interaction between the social and the literary, as well as the meaning of the body and the material bodily lower stratum.  In his chapter on the history of laughter, Bakhtin advances the notion of its therapeutic and liberating force, arguing that "laughing truth ... degraded power". CANNOTANSWER

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Bakhtin föddes i Oryol i Ryssland till en gammal släkt av adeln. Hans far var föreståndare för en bank och arbetade i flera städer. Av denna anledning tillbringade Bakhtin sina tidiga barndomsår i Oryol, i Vilnius, och sedan i Odessa, där han 1913 anslöt sig till den historiska och filologiska fakulteten vid det lokala universitetet (Odessas universitet). Katerina Clark och Michael Holquist skriver: "Odessa... var liksom Vilnius en lämplig inramning för ett kapitel i livet för en man som skulle bli filosof över heteroglossia och karneval. Under andra världskriget lämnade Bakhtin in en avhandling om den franske renässansförfattaren Francois Rabelais som inte försvarades förrän några år senare. De kontroversiella idéer som diskuterades inom verket orsakade mycket oenighet, och det beslutades följaktligen att Bakhtin skulle nekas sin högre doktorsgrad. På grund av sitt innehåll utgavs således inte Rabelais och medeltidens och renässansens folkkultur förrän 1965, vid vilken tid den fick titeln Rabelais och Hans värld (ryska: Tvorchestvo Fransua Rable i narodnaia kul'tura srednevekov'ia i Renessa, Tvorcestvo Fransua Rable i narodnaja kul'tura srednevekov'ja i Renessansa). I Rabelais and His World, en klassiker av renässansstudier, befattar sig Bakhtin med öppenheten hos Gargantua och Pantagruel; boken i sig fungerar dock också som ett exempel på en sådan öppenhet. Genom hela texten försöker Bakhtin två saker: han söker återvinna avsnitt av Gargantua och Pantagruel som förr antingen ignorerades eller undertrycktes, och utför en analys av renässansens sociala system för att upptäcka balansen mellan språk som var tillåtet och språk som inte var det. Det är genom denna analys som Bakhtin pekar ut två viktiga undertexter: den första är karneval (carnivalesque) som Bakhtin beskriver som en social institution, och den andra är grotesk realism som definieras som ett litterärt läge. I Rabelais och Hans värld studerar Bakhtin således samspelet mellan det sociala och det litterära, liksom betydelsen av kroppen och det materiella kroppsliga lägre skiktet. I sitt kapitel om skrattets historia för Bakhtin fram föreställningen om sin terapeutiska och befriande kraft, och argumenterar för att "skratta sanning ... degraderad makt". CANNOTANSWER Ställ en fråga om den här artikeln.
Bakhtin was born in Oryol, Russia, to an old family of the nobility. His father was the manager of a bank and worked in several cities. For this reason, Bakhtin spent his early childhood years in Oryol, in Vilnius, and then in Odessa, where in 1913 he joined the Historical and Philological Faculty of the Local University (University of Odessa). Katerina Clark and Michael Holquist write: "Odessa... was like Vilnius a suitable setting for a chapter in the life of a man who would become a philosopher of heteroglossia and carnival. During World War II, Bakhtin filed a thesis on French Renaissance writer Francois Rabelais who was not defended until a few years later. The controversial ideas discussed within the work caused much disagreement, and it was consequently decided that Bakhtin would be denied his higher doctorate. Thus, due to its content, Rabelais and the folk culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance were not published until 1965, at which time it was titled Rabelais and His world (Russian: Tvorchestvo Fransua Rable in narodnaia kul'tura srednevekov'ia in Renessa, Tvorcestvo Fransua Rable in narodnaja kul'tura srednevekov'ja in Renessansa). In Rabelais and His World, a classic of Renaissance studies, Bakhtin deals with the transparency of Gargantua and Pantagruel; however, the book itself also serves as an example of such openness. Throughout the text, Bakhtin tries two things: he seeks to recover sections of Gargantua and Pantagruel that were formerly either ignored or suppressed, and performs an analysis of the Renaissance social system to discover the balance between languages that were allowed and languages that were not. It is through this analysis that Bakhtin points out two important subtitles: the first is carnival (carnivalesque) which Bakhtin describes as a social institution, and the second is grotesque realism defined as a literary location. In Rabelais and His world, Bakhtin thus studies the interaction between the social and the literary, as well as the importance of the body and the material body lower strata. In his chapter on the history of laughter, Bakhtin brings forward the notion of his therapeutic and liberating power, arguing for "laughing truth ... degraded power". CANNOTANSWER Ask a question about this article.
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