Book 1, Rabelais & His World : Chapter 2, Prologue & Introduction Summary and Analysis

The cultural context in which Mikhail lives and works is very different from that of readers. It is noted that his first book nearly failed to be published altogether. He is arrested and exiled for a crime called "unreliability"—a trait viewed with an intellectual form of hyper-vigilance at a time when Russia was seeking to create new found stability in a post-revolutionary culture. Nevertheless, Mikhail Bakhtin manages to submit his manuscript to the normal authorities for the new Russian State. The review of it is delayed by the entire 2nd World War. Only after the War is his work considered for publication. He is invited to defend it. Contemporary academics may know that the doctoral degree requires an official defense before a group of seniors. In Russia...