The Carnival On The Edge Of Cliff

Jerome David Salinger is one of the most important American novelists after World War Ⅱ His only novel The Catcher in the Rye, once published in 1951, earns him great attentions from the critics and admiration from the youth. Due to its complexity, the critics have made diversified interpretations on it. In the early days, the critics mainly studied on the theme of the novel. Later, with the palmy development of methods of literary criticism, such as New Criticism, Archetypal Criticism and Comparative Literature Criticism, the critics analyze and expound the novel from different angles, such as language style, archetype, psychology, narratology and religion. So far, few people have studied the novel from Bakhtin’s theory of carnivalesque. Therefore, this thesis is about to employ Bakhtin’s theory of carnivalesque to interpret The Catcher in the Rye, explore its carnival characteristics and excavate the connotation it conveys, especially the situation where the protagonist lingers on the cliff between the worlds of children and adults.The theory of carnivalesque is one of the most important theories put forward by Bakhtin. The duality of carnival, carnival rituals, carnival square, and carnivalesque characterization and language are all crucial concepts of the carnival theory. Based on the theory and concepts above, the thesis consists of five parts.In the part of introduction, it gives a brief introduction to the literary review of the novel both abroad and at home, as well as the three basic concepts about the carnival theory, that is, carnival, carnivalistic sense of the world and carnivalization of literature.In the following three chapters, this thesis attempts to provide a thorough analysis of the novel from the perspective of the carnival theory on the textual basis. In the first chapter, it dissects three characters of carnival duality and also the carnival collective that is made up of clowns, tricksters and rebels. In the second chapter, it analyzes the phenomenon of carnivalesque language, such as abusive words, lies, parody and the unorthodox language style. In the third chapter, it explores the carnival square in the novel, in other words, the places with carnival features.In the conclusion part, it summarizes the embodiment of carnival characteristics in the characterization, the use of language and the development of story plots, etc. Also, it points out the limitations of the thesis.Based on the above analysis, the thesis believes that the streets of New York and the places in which the protagonist has wandered in three days compose a "carnival square". On this square, different kinds of people revel, vent and act to the fullest. Under the cover of the hypocritical masks, the weird behaviors, vulgar language and libertine life style all are the true portrayal of their distorted values and split personalities. The characteristics of carnival enhance the dramatic tension of novel expression, highlight people’s sense of void and perplex their mental states, especially reflecting the complication of life and the problem of path selection that the adolescents will face during the process of growing up like what Holden has.