Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of dialogy and his conception of carnival as counter-culture

In this study, the main lines of the carnival understanding of M. M. Bakhtin, in relation to his theory of dialogy are exposited. Bakhtin's understanding of dialogy is divided into two periods: "The formal term", which also includes his work on Dostoyevsky in 1929, and "the historical term" covering his further studies after 1930. In the first chapter of this thesis, the main lines of the dialogy understanding in the formal term are laid down, and the relationship between his dialogy understanding and Dostoyevsky poetics is shown. The second chapter deals with the revision on theory of dialogy, which resulted from the introduction of the historical method after 1930. In this chapter, the methodological studies of Bakhtin's second term are examined. It is detected that, Bakhtin has developed an understanding of metalinguistics, which adapts his theory of dialogy to the historical poetics and various problematic of cultural history. In the third chapter, the relevance of the chronotope concept as the founding concept of historical poetics to worldview is examined. Moreover, the interrelations of various literary genres with historical and social conditions are explained by referring to the conception of metalinguistics. This chapter also intends to make an introduction to Bakhtin's historical reading of medieval and Renaissance folk culture via metalinguistic analysis of literary genres. The third and fourth chapters as a whole examine Bakhtin's characterization of carnival culture as counter-culture; a conclusion to which Bakhtin comes by analyzing the historical development of the practical, linguistic and literary devices developed in the medieval and Renaissance carnivals. Keywords: Dialogy, Monology, Heteroglossia, Polyglossia, Carnival, Parody, Hybrid, Grotesque, Counter-Culture