Our Bakhtin reading group, which has been going for some time, is not ending completely—but we’re taking a pause. It may last until the summer break, or resume sooner, once our facilitators have more time to focus on preparing the sessions. Or perhaps, if we find someone new who’s enthusiastic about guiding the discussions.
In the meantime, we’ll continue gathering materials and sharing occasional posts on the topic. I’d like to invite everyone interested in this field to take a look at our new project with the MediaWiki on David’s book Magic and Slavery in Madagascar. This book was written in many ways under the influence of Mikhail Bakhtin’s ideas, and I hope to trace and connect the ideas we discussed in the reading group—on the polyphonic novel, carnival, and the culture of laughter—to passages from David’s work.
Hope to see you again soon,
Nika
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This is our long-awaited reading group on David Graeber’s favorite Mikhail Bakhtin’s Rabelais and His World.
These meetings are limited in number. The group is meeting 12 times during 2024/25, on the last Thursday of each month.
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