Book 1, Rabelais & His World : Chapter 15, Chapter 6 - Images of the Material Bodily Lower Stratum Summary and Analysis

The first thing Mikhail Bakhtain does here is to assure readers that Rabelais' novels are characteristic of the time and place which produced them. Bakhtain shows that his intention has been to show how Rabelais' focus upon and use of folk culture within the story-line serve as a counterpoint to the official culture of the Middle Ages. Pantagruel is a novel consisting of 5 Books. It is the author's first novel. Gargantua is another novel by the same author. Bakhtain brings the minds of readers back to the Picrochole war, in part using it to explain the Middle Ages. The war was actually a rather local conflict. The feudal government combined elements that contemporary readers might...