Beschrijving

The Politics and Poetics of Transgression examines how acts of transgression—behaviors that cross social, cultural, or moral boundaries—function within literature, culture, and political life. Peter Stallybrass investigates the ways in which societies define limits and how those limits are symbolically challenged, particularly in early modern European culture. The book draws heavily on cultural theory, literary analysis, and historical examples to explore the relationship between power, order, and disorder.

A central focus of the work is the concept of the “carnivalesque,” a term associated with cultural theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. Carnival rituals and popular festivities often temporarily inverted social hierarchies, allowing ordinary people to mock authority and challenge established norms. Stallybrass analyzes how these moments of inversion functioned both as forms of resistance and as mechanisms that ultimately reinforced existing power structures.

The book also explores how literature and cultural practices represent the body, social hierarchy, and marginal groups. By examining themes such as disorder, parody, and symbolic inversion, Stallybrass shows how cultural expressions of transgression reveal underlying tensions within society.

Overall, the work argues that transgression is not merely rebellion against authority but a complex cultural process through which societies negotiate boundaries, power relations, and social identities.