To Be Carnival Or To Be Liberal: A Study Of Brave New World From The Perspective Of Bakhtin’s Carnival Theory

Brave New World is a dystopian sci-fi novel written by English author Aldous Huxley in 1931.The novel presents a picture of a future world with highly developed technology and abundant materials in the year 2532 A.D.People in this world are divided into five castes.They are living under the motto “community,identity and stability”,which is different from the life of “Savage Reservation” inhabited by Indian tribes.The characters,scenes,and languages Huxley has portrayed in the novel reflect the characteristics of the new and the old,the advanced and the backward,the death and the renewal,which Bakhtin’s carnival theory can help interpret deeply.Bakhtin’s carnival theory can be better understood from four dimensions:historically,it derives from the carnival of ancient Rome,which is a collection of conceptual terms such as carnivalesque and carnivalization containing carnival-styled witty celebrations,rituals and forms;in terms of research principles,it advocates the“non-official” folk standpoint;from the perspective of contents,it includes carnival,carnivalesque,carnivalization with the characteristics of universality,ceremony,equality,and subversion;in the way of argument,it adheres to the new thinking mode of binary oppositions.Under the guidance of Bakhtin’s carnival theory,this thesis intends to examine Brave New World from three aspects,carnivalesque characters,carnivalesque squares and carnivalesque language respectively.The first chapter analyzes the carnival collective consisting of clowns(the Director and the Controller),fools(Helmholtz and John),madmen(Lenina and Linda),and tricksters(Bernard)in the novel.Based on the analysis of the characters’ attitudes to self,others and society,as well as the way they deal with family relationships,friendship and love,this thesis endeavors to reveal people’s different pursuits of carnival spirits,thus exposing the differences between the new and the old,the advanced and the backward.Chapter Two examines the carnivalesque squares in the novel.Brave New World introduces various places with carnival features such as the World State,Reservation and Shakespearean World,which form different “carnivalesque squares” under the ties of characters,languages and plots.Bakhtin states that the square is “the center of all that is unofficial;it enjoyed a certain extraterritoriality in a world of official order and official ideology,it always remained ‘with the people’”.On the carnivalesque squares of full participation,it is easy to tell that people of the World State,for lack of self-awareness,behave quite differently from people of the Shakespearean World who seek freedom and aspire for new life.Chapter Three analyzes the carnivalesque language in the novel.According to Bakhtin,carnivalesque language is incarnated “a reservoir in which various speech patterns excluded from official intercourse could freely accumulate”.The novel contains a lot of descriptions of carnival language,mainly in two forms: one is the degradation language,including the use of abusive words and the bodily description words;the other is the parody of classics.Carnivalesque language creates an equal and free discourse under the carnival,satirizing the differences between the carnival life and the reality.Brave New World vividly reveals the binary oppositions between the old and the new,civilization and backwardness,technology and freedom under the control of genetic technology and the cover of the motto,“community,identity,stability” in the World State.Through people’s unconscious,emotionless social activities and discursive,debauched lifestyles in the carnivalesque squares,it discloses the fact that the happiness of people is a fake carnival contrary to the real world.At the end of the novel,people from World State are even curious about the bizarre behaviors of Savage John,which demonstrates that these people can not escape from their own emptiness and confusion.John commits suicide eventually in the World State.His death plays a role in subverting the carnival world,which not only foreshadows the awakening of John’s self-awareness and the realization of spiritual freedom,but also enables readers to re-examine the relationship between technological development and the pursuit of freedom.