Elements of the carnivalesque in Faulkner's "Was." (Special Issue: William Faulkner): An article from: The Mississippi Quarterly

This digital document is an article from The Mississippi Quarterly, published by Mississippi State University on June 22, 1993. The length of the article is 3611 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Applying Mikhail Bakhtin's notions of carnivalistic images to William Faulkner's 'Was' helps to explain why a story so bleak in its portrayal of plantation life can be so funny to the reader. Bakhtin claims that carnival derives its absurdity from an inversion of typical power structures, and a subsequent comedic effect arises as the usual order is ridiculed. Faulkner reverses the role of slave/master and hunter/hunted in 'Was' and incorporates carnivalistic images of gambling, the use of oxymorons to show irreverence and the ridicule of traditional figures of power to achieve a comic effect.

Citation Details
Title: Elements of the carnivalesque in Faulkner's "Was." (Special Issue: William Faulkner)
Author: Sandra Lee Kleppe
Publication:The Mississippi Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 1993
Publisher: Mississippi State University
Volume: v46 Issue: n3 Page: p437(9)

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