The Gay Science of François Rabelais (Olga Svetlakova)
"The Gay Science of Master François Rabelais"
Lecture by Olga Svetlakova as part of the joint project "Pragmema" and the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater "The Age of Enlightenment"
St. Petersburg, Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater, Winter 2017
Rabelais was a titanic Renaissance figure: he was a physician and theologian, a learned humanist, a wit, a profound philosopher, a lawyer, a teacher, a translator, a gourmet, and a culinary expert. The indomitable spirit that elevated him above the era of religious strife and brought him into conflict with the Sorbonne and the Pope, along with his literary genius, led Rabelais to create the book abbreviated in Russian as "Gargantua and Pantagruel." More than half a century ago, the author of the best study of it, the Russian thinker M.M. Bakhtin, said that we barely understand it... Little has changed since then, yet Rabelais's courageous and brilliant poetics not only innovatively paves the way for the modern novel but also enlightens us in many ways, unexpectedly revealing a keen relevance.
Videography and editing by Sasha Skochilenko
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