Carnivalesque shows humor but in black atmosphere. Unlikely of people meet and the readers get chaos, but there is humor.

1. The Art of Carnivalization in “The White Tiger”
Presented by Riddhi Jani
Roll no: 23
Paper 13, The New Literature
Semester: 4rth
Year: 2014-’15
Submitted to: Smt. S. B. Gardy Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

2. What is ‘Carnivalization’ ?
• Mikhail Bakhtin- the term ‘Carnivalesque’.
• Subverts the dominant style of writing through
humor.
• “Feast of Fools” “Feast of Circumcision”.
• Burlesqued sacred ceremonies.
• “The natural lout beneath the cassock”.
• Similarity with Manippean Satire.

3. • Images of Carnivalization

4. • Images of “Feast of Fools”

5. Carnivalization in the Novel

6. Familiar and free
interaction
between people
Eccentric behaviour
Carnivalistic
misalliance
Sacrilegious
Bakhtin’s
four
catagories

7. • Poignant situation of our country is shown in
subverted way.
• Resistance, subversion and role-reversal.
• Balram’s resistance toward his granny and also
his masters.

8. • Subversion of religion:
“Do you know about Hanuman, sir? He was
the faithful servant of the god Rama, and we
worship him in our temples because he is a
shining example of how to serve your masters
with absolute fidelity, love, and devotion.”

9. • Role reversal:
“I stopped the car, and then moved to my left, and
he moved to his right, and our bodies passed each
other (…) and then he became driver and I
became passenger.”
• At the end of the novel we see Balram as master.
• He is the real “LOUT” in the veneer of
“CASSOCK”.

10. • The position is also subverted with the change of
the situation.
“The Stork himself came out to see Vijay, and
bowed down before him, a landlord bowing
before a pigherd's son! The marvels of
democracy!”
• Popular becomes prime and fools and wise are
replaced with each other.

11. “On her birthday, for instance, he had me dress
up as a maharaja, with a red turban and dark
cooling glasses, and serve them their food in this
costume.”
• Alternate identity.
“I found the fellow selling T-shirts. "No," I kept
saying to each shirt he showed me—until I
found one that was all white, with a small word
in English in the center. Then I went looking for
the man selling black shoes.”

12. • Dialogism is an important part of Carnivalesque
technique.
• The novel is a conversation of narrator with an
non-present listener.
• It seems like a dramatic monologue in humorous
way.
• Profanity can be seen here as a part of
carnivalization.

13. • God’s mightiness is challenged here in satirical
way.
“God says: I am powerful. I am huge. Become my
servant again.
Devil says: Ha!”
• So, in this way carnivalization proceeds in this
novel.

14. Work Sitation
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivalesque
• (Zacharia)