L. Publishing house "Science". LO. 1976. 204 p. Circulation 10,000. Price 1 rub. More than 10 years ago, a book was published that revealed the most ancient roots of medieval folk culture and persistently called for the continuation of the study of folk laughter culture in different countries and in different epochs1 . Even the first reviewers of M. M. Bakhtin's book insisted on the need to expand the analyzed material, in particular, on the importance of studying the facts of Russian medieval culture .2 This task of describing the" laughing world " of Ancient Russia was undertaken by the authors of the book under review, who dedicated it to the memory of M. M. Bakhtin. The purpose of the book, says the preface, is to determine the national and epochal features of the" laughter world " of Ancient Russia (p. 4). The peculiarity of the study lies in the fact that it does not just repeat the work of M. M. Bakhtin on new material, but goes further, especially in the interpretation of the people as the guardian of laughter culture. M. M. Bakhtin believed that the bearer of the latter were commoners, peasants, and urban artisans, and denied this role to the clergy, the city patriciate, the nobility, and even more so to the royal court. Criticism has already pointed out the one-sidedness of this interpretation. 3 Acad. D. S. Likhachev and A. M. Panchenko in this regard know- 1 M. M. Bakhtin. Creativity of Francois Rabelais and folk culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Moscow, 1965. 2 See, for example, L. M. Batkin. Panurge's laughter and the philosophy of culture. Voprosy Filosofii, 1967, No. 12, p. 123. 3 A. Gurevich. Laughter in the folk culture of the Middle Ages. Voprosy literatury, 1966, No. 6, p. 208. page 167 D. S. Likhachev devoted a special essay to the analysis of Ivan the Terrible's" acting " and the laughing style of his works. In general, the authors give a broad picture of the laughter culture of Ancient Russia-from chicken huts to royal chambers, from ... Читать далее