The Dialogic Nature of Signs “ Semiotics Institute on Line ” 8 lectures for the “ Semiotics Institute

As stated in the previous lecture, if we do not take into account Baktins's global (see his notion of 'big experience') and biosemiotic view towards the complex and intricate life of signs, we will not understand the role in his work of the relation between 'dialogism' and 'carnivalesque'. The latter is formulated in Bakhtin's study on Rabelais and then also used in the revised edition (1963) of his book on Dostoevsky. In Rabelais Bakhtin tells us what carnival means for him. He refers to that complex phenomenon, existing in all cultures, formed by the system of attitudes, conceptions and verbal and nonverbal signs according to a comic and joyful idea of living. Carnival, therefore, does not only concern Western culture, nor the Russian spirit, but any culture of the world insofar as it is human. Rabelais occupies a place of central importance in Bakhtin's overall conception. By contrast with oversimplifying and suffocating interpretations of Marxism, Bakhtin instead develops Marx's idea that the human being is fully realized when 'the reign of necessity ends'. Consequently, a social system that is effectively alternative to capitalism is one that considers free time and not labour time as the measure of real social wealth (see Marx, Grundrisse, 1857