M.M. Bahtin about the problem of seriousness

The article addresses the issue of seriousness as it is represented in the texts of M. Bakhtin. The author shows that laughter and seriousness can be regarded as two cultural poles, where the first represents motion and variability, and the second represents completeness and immutability. The differences of laughter and seriousness are considered in several aspects. First, laughter is directed at the world as a whole, and seriousness deals with a certain picture of the world, which it is trying to claim as the only possible reality. Secondly, seriousness and laughter are contrasted as part and whole. Seriousness is only one of the moments of reality, while laughter is commensurate with "the whole unity of the world." Thirdly, laughter does not hide anything, but seriousness can act as a form of concealment. As a result, emptiness and lies often prefer to hide under the guise of seriousness. Finally, laughter is fundamentally non-hierarchical, wthile seriousness tends to divide, build hierarchies. Ideas about serious can be considered as one of the tools to maintain subordination in society. Forms of culture, oriented to seriousness, are dogmatic, authoritarian, characterized by the impenetrability of boundaries and the inadmissibility of any transformations and profanations. Violence, lies and moralism are regarded as the instruments of asserting a seriousness in a culture. However, in addition to one-sided, false seriousness that pervades an authoritarian culture, there are also forms of seriousness which do not oppose to laughter and realize that they are only moments of the “incomplete whole world”: critical philosophy, science, “serio-comical” literature, a new European romance. In all these forms, a serious attitude towards the world, mixing with the laughter, gives rise to a special kind of synthesis that allows the culture to develop, while retaining its specificity. In conclusion, the author writes about the excessive seriousness of Russian culture and the need for a “laughter” impulse for its development.