Thematically, this article focuses on the interpretation of carnival pictures in folksongs. In terms of source material, it is based on published sources, mostly songs from the author’s field research conducted in Slovakia, including a comparative reflection of the repertoires of other Slavic nations (Czechia, Moravia, Trans-Carpathia, Poland and Serbia). The author concentrated on that part of the traditional repertoire which relates to the laughter carnival culture from the point of view of archetypes, as highlighted by M. M. Bachtin in his work François Rabelais and the Folk Culture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. This mainly relates to the aestheticism and poeticism of the carnival world and the grotesque concept of the body in folk songs. The article presents this issue through pictures of eating and drinking; food and drinks; personal hygiene; emptying and excrements, sexual acts, the human body; old-age, death and after-death life; animals and things.
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