An Interpretation Of Carnival Connotations In Harold Pinter's Comedy Of Menace From The Perspective Of Carnival Theory

Pinter's “comedy of menace” is considered as an ingenious combination of tragedy and comedy,as well as a mixture of menaces and laughter.More importantly,some“heterogeneous” contents can be found in it,which can be regarded as the basic features of Carnival.With the application of Bakhtin's Theory of Carnival to Pinter's three representative works of “comedy of menace”,The Birthday Party,The Slight Ache and The Homecoming,combining with the social context and Pinter's personal experience,this thesis reveals the carnival connotations of Pinter's plays.Taking Bakhtin's Carnival theory as the cue,this paper is divided into three parts.Firstly,after giving an introduction of Harold Pinter and his three works,it is devoted to discussing Bakhtin's carnival theory and the core elements of it which are involved below.Then,a literature review of Pinter and his works at home and abroad is presented,in which the current problem and the starting point of this study are pointed out.The second part is the major block of the paper.It answers how Pinter achieved Carnival in his plays through the interpreting of Pinter's grotesque characters,degradation of language and deformation of carnival square;next,combined with the spirits of carnival theory,namely ancient Dionysian Spirit and Dialogicity,it explores why Pinter's comedy of menace contains carnival color;finally,starting from the two main connotations of carnival theory,popularity and duality,it reveals the significance and the warning function of the carnival in Pinter's plays.The third part is the conclusion of the whole text.It also points out the shortcomings of this thesis.As an attempt from a new angle of Pinter's research,through the study of the carnival in Pinter's comedy of menace,this paper reveals the true scenes of post-war Britain and how British release their depressions and anxieties from their crazy behaviors and degraded language.This thesis hopes to provide a new and unique perspective for the later study of Pinter as well as his works.