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Arts & Communication Bakhtin and Groys: Pop culture and hieratic senses

of them.” 14, p. 184 Rather than seeking truth or consensus, ancient Saturnalia and archaic folklore. Groys suggests
3
Bakhtin emphasizes a struggle for dominance or, at best, that remnants of this past surface in Dionysian exaltation,
a peculiar blend of contradictions that fosters a highly which can only be expressed through a complete loss of
creative process in cultures. As Groys suggests, if Bakhtin’s control, although temporary. While the carnival may
carnival and pop culture share anything in common, it is reveal “the temporary abolition of individual isolation in
their potential to unite opposites and generate an endless favor of collective ecstasy and ‘people’s laughter’,” 14, p. 182 it
array of inconsistencies and bizarre intersections. also introduces ritualistic and cultic imagery, opening an

It is noteworthy that Groys’ reception casts serious intriguing avenue for other lines of exploration.
12
doubt on the traditional depiction of the carnival climate as 3. The sacred, the profane, the loop
optimistic and democratic. Instead, he identifies a totalitarian
element in carnival, suggesting that it absorbs and destroys The second thread of inquiry pertains to Groys’s
everything because no one escapes its celebration. Contrary interpretation of Bakhtinian theory, which he employs to
to the consensus among Bakhtinian scholars, Groys argues analyze esthetic objects, particularly within the realm of
2
that there is no space for genuine democracy within the cinematography. As an art critic has noted, “Bakhtin takes
carnival: “Bakhtin’s carnival is horrible – God forbid being his examples mainly from literature, but his descriptions
part of it,” he asserts. 12, p. 3 Groys further contends that “an of carnivalesque art fit perfectly with the resources with
individual does not have any other choice in carnival but which some of the most famous scenes in the history
to accept his own destruction as a positive thing – as self- of cinema have been created.” 23,p. 9; 3 It is, therefore, no
rebirth and self-renewal.” 12, p. 4 However, this argument is not coincidence that Groys turns to Bakhtin when developing
entirely convincing. It overlooks the spontaneous character his own artistic intervention, Thinking in Loop – a video
inherent in the original late medieval celebrations, as some essay in which Groys presents several compelling premises
scholars have noted. 21,22 Despite its reductive nature, Groys’ regarding the cultural form that appears to define our
interpretation is relevant as it highlights a certain dark postmodern era: the video clip.
idolatry present in the carnival. In this respect, Groys posits Although this article does not focus on describing that
that postmodern cultural genre, a subject extensively discussed
… in his book on Rabelais, Bakhtin describes by other scholars, it is worth highlighting the specific
8,24
carnival in severe enough colors: the esthetics
of carnival generate a constant alternation of 2 At this juncture, it is important to clarify that this article
“enthronings and dethronings” accompanied by adopts a semiotic approach, understanding aesthetic objects,
“mirthful” tortures, murders, insults, defamation, media forms, and cultural products in general as models of
pelting with excrement, and so on. At the center reality or, in Bakhtinian terms, as refractions of realia. From
this perspective, culture becomes a battleground where
of Bakhtin’s carnival stands the cult of “pregnant competing interpretations of reality are contested. This
death,” active during the “mirthful time,” which in view aligns, to some extent, with the ideas of scholars such
death gives birth; it does not allow anything old to as Thomas Luckmann and Peter L. Berger, who argue that
be perpetuated but never ceases to give birth to the society is a continuous and ongoing construction, shaped
new and the young. 14 p. 186 by social agreements that are inherently provisional and
dynamic, as well as by certain institutions that legitimize
Groys is not entirely mistaken: Although the end is particular understandings of the social order. This theory
accepted as necessary for the conception of new life, a is discussed in: Berger, L. and Luckmann, T. The Social
certain dark mysticism seems to persist in carnivalized Construction of Reality A Treatise in the Sociology of
forms and popular culture more broadly. Indeed, one of Knowledge. London: Penguin Books, 1966. In our historical
the most evocative symbols of this ambivalence is the context, the media might be regarded as the most influential
“pregnant death,” a figure prominent in Latin American institution today, and this conception of a “constructed
traditions, particularly in the rites of San La Muerte reality” can also explain why people distort images of
(Our Lady of the Holy Death) and in narcocultures. This themselves to promote a public image in social networks
image, depicting the emergence of new life alongside such as Instagram or TikTok.
the end of another, is often represented as a grim reaper 3 Translation is mine. The institution that organized the Groys
exhibition in 2020 subsequently published the written script
with a pregnant belly. However, when he references this of its audio-visual exhibition in Spanish and Catalan. The
traditional figure, another relevant and extensive tradition exhibition was curated by Manuel Fontán del Junco (24). More
is explored by Bakhtin who includes the pregnant death information about the exhibition can be found at: https://
among other elements from popular medieval celebrations: ajuntament.barcelona.cat/lavirreina/es/recursos/boris-groys-
a unique reservoir of meanings and symbols from the pensando-en-bucle/501 [Last accessed: 2024 May 10]

Volume 3 Issue 1 (2025) 5 doi: 10.36922/ac.3978