Bodily lower stratum in mediatic images

Abstract

This article provides a reading of grotesque shown in visual medias, mainly television. The discussion is supported by the ideas of bodily lower stratum as proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin in his work about popular culture at final Middle Ages and Renaissance, based on François Rabelais’s literary creations. The study explains the anthropological dimensions of the human body; defines the bodily lower stratum from the standpoint of bakhtinian thought; presents aspects of the mentality and the cultural scenario at the end of the medieval period, with emphasis on carnivalization and desacralization of the human body; and discusses the notions of renascentist grotesque realism updated in the context of contemporary mediatic images.