![]() ![]() 3These forbidden laughter zones expanded steadily in the late 1930s (during the period of the Great Terror), forcing public popular laughter-the laughter of the ordinary people at the shortcomings of the Soviet rule-from the public sphere into the "underground."Īlthough popular jokes weren't eliminated in Soviet society as such, they were made increasingly unwelcom by the authorities, who furthered their influence over the lives of individuals through a system of informers. Projecting this interpretation of carnival from the Early Modern onto the Soviet context, in the 1920-30s much of the popular laughter or carnival-whether folklore or literary satire-was interpreted by the authorities as potentially subversive of the regime, especially if, as Bulgakov explains it in his letter to the Soviet government, this laughter "penetrat into the forbidden zones"-Soviet ideology. 2 Mikhail Bakhtin explains that during carnival ordinary citizens were freed from the censoring power of the Catholic Church: all hierarchical distinctions were temporarily suspended, and people became metaphorically "equal." In addition, carnivalesque upheaval suspended fear and conventional morality as the primary tools for the hierarchical oppression. Mikhail Bakhtin-who explored the social functions of carnival in his work Rabelais and His World-points out several traits of carnival that are important for the interpretation of carnival in While the baroque and inventive carnivalesque events in The Master and Margarita are the main source of entertainment for the reader, carnival serves a far more important social function: it conveys an alternative vision of identity and community in the context of Soviet public monologism-not conformist and fearful, but capable of dissent and overcoming political fears. George Bengalsky's head is torn off by Behemoth who is enraged at the master of ceremonies' repetitive attempts to impose the "appropriate" interpretations of black magic upon his audience during the ill-fated show at the Variety Theatre. Rimsky and Varenukha are frightened to death by Woland's accomplices. The director of the theater, Likhodeyev, is magically transferred to Yalta, dressed only in his nightshirt. The bureaucrats from the Variety Theatre-Likhodeyev, Rimsky, and Varenukha-are removed from their positions of authority and punished. Berlioz, a "literary" bureaucrat, is removed from his position of authority when, bewitched by Woland, he falls under a streetcar. Carnivalesque havoc frees ordinary citizens from the censoring power of the Soviet ideological golem, and they venture into an almost obscene equality: the bureaucrats are brutally punished, and, for a while, ordinary citizens enjoy an unrestrained freedom. 1 In fact, the most bizarre but simultaneously most memorable events of the novel are carnivalesque, and-similarly to Bakhtin's medieval carnival- they mock and challenge the Soviet authorities represented by various bureaucrats. Many scholars of The Master and Margarita point out that Bakhtin's notion of carnival fits Bulgakov's novel perfectly. Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita Yanina Arnold Through the Lens of Carnival: Identity, Community, and Fear in Academic Electronic Journal in Slavic Studies. ![]()
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