Analysis Of Carnivalization In Poe’s Novels

Marked by unique style and complex themes, addition to his legendary personallife, Edgar Allan Poe has been esteemed as one of the dazzling icons of AmericanLiterature, placing great influence on both literary writing and academic research. Inretrospect, started with psychoanalysis on characters in Poe’s fiction by D. H.Lawrence, Poe’s style, theme and thoughts has played central roles in literaturestudies. Based on wide study of former results, this thesis aims to discover a newpath, which originates from theory of Carnivalization, by Mihail Bakhtin, that analyzePoe’s tales by comparing style, theme, and structure to Menippean Satire, a genre inancient Greek literature that was considered as a represent of Carnivalesqueliterature. Moreover, supporting by some points from narratology, this thesisendeavors to analyze at what level and part Poe’s tales practiced the attitude ofcarnival, as well as the possible aesthetic effects that might lead to.Preface serves as a brief introduction to current research on Edgar llan Poe’sworks, especially on his fictions, then goes to demonstrate the necessity andpossibility of applying Mihail Bakhtin’s theory of carnivalization and polyphony onanalyzing Poe’s tales. In Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, Bakhtin mentioned thatPoe’s works are “close to Menippean in nature”, somehow he did not advance toanalyze this in detail, which inspired this thesis to further the perspective anddiscover the sense of carnival in Poe’s tales.Chapter1focuses on narrative structure in Poe’s tales. Bakhtin emphasized theimportance of so-called ritual of decrowning in Carnival ceremony in Medieval,regarding such phenomenon as the practice of sense of carnival, including comedianfigures or actions and eulogy to permanent alterations, which all lead to “joyfulrelativity”, hence subvert the hierarchies of unitariness. As a mode of plot, narrativestructure as ritual of decrowning can be found in almost all of Poe’s works, such asThe system of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, depicting constant transferring between logic and madness, decrowning the authority of both the narrator and thereaders. Furthermore, the decrowning of narrator can be concluded as “unreliablenarration”, which overturns the seemingly solid structure and constitutes irony toreaders—another form of decrowning. In Legia and other novels with the topic of“death and resurrection of beauty”, ritual of decrowning displays itself as circulationof death and alive, which served as an overturn to the temporality of beauty and tothe inevitability of death.In Chapter2, space and time that displayed in Poe’s tales are analyzed inperspective of carnivalization as well as narratology. Poe tended to set his story in aplace where most social, historical or economical features are removed; also, in suchsolitary space, a magnificent style with ornamental scene and exaggerating figurescan be observed. All these traits can retrospect to the carnival tradition, according toBakhtin, which reveal the spirit of alteration and anti-official. Similarly, time in Poe’stales does not follow common sense or reality rules, either. In the tell-tale heart, fluxof time, which is displayed from a mad crime’s confession, has been compressed orexaggerated in extreme scale all by purpose, rather than average, normal pace. InThe Pits and The Pendulum, movement of pendulum not merely demonstrates timeflowing, but also accelerates tension and anxiety.Chapter3then goes to figures, especially grotesque depictions from Poe’s works.Bakhtin believed that what grotesque overturns are unitariness, completeness andabsoluteness of official culture and collective consciousness, hence in a way alsopractices the spirit of carnival. According to Bakhtin, grotesque consists of two traits:duality and incompleteness. Duality embraces contradictions such as old and young,sick and health, ugly and beautiful, high and low, and places all contrary elements inone figure. Incompleteness, on the other hand, focuses on stage of chaos, such asdeformity body, smile in a sorrow mood, and pregnant old woman. Grotesque can befound in most of Poe’s fiction, especially in his humorous tales such as Hop-Frog, Theangel of the Odd, and The Devil in the belfry. In all these tales, grotesque could be observed not only in human figures, but also in depicting of surroundings and even intheme itself, which eventually sublimates Poe’s tales from mere horror or funnystories.Chapter4contains analysis on generic structures of Poe’s tales. s Bakhtin pointedout, one of the most essential traits of Menipes Satire is multi-genres and multi-styles,which brings about polyphony and spirit of dialogue. Furthermore, he elaboratedtwo kinds of dialogue: macro-dialogue, which refers to para-position of attitude orfunction of different parts in one text; micro-dialogue, which refers to continuousdialogue in figure’s conscious. In The purloined letter and Diddling, by inserting othergenres, a relation of irony established between body text and inserting text, leadingto wider and stronger effect. Micro-dialogue, on the other hand, displayed mostly inPoe’s tales of conscience including the black cat and the tell-tale heart. Protagonistsin these tales keep talking, refuting and debating with real or imaginary people oreven readers, while Poe’s moral attitude hides behind dialogues.In conclusion, similarities between Menipes Satire and Edgar Poe’s tales could bediscovered on narrative structure, time and space settings, grotesque figures, andgeneric structure. All these traits constitute classical carnivalization style on bothaesthetic effect and theme, bringing permanent fascination to Poe’s tales.