The Carnivalesque and Cultural Dialogues in Jamaica Kincaid's Writings

Abstract

This thesis uses Mikhail Bakhtin's carnival theory to argue that Jamaica Kincaid makes<br>distinctive deployment of the carnivalesque and the grotesque, in an attempt to<br>destabilize and overturn the prevailing Western ideologies that claim to authoritatively<br>explain human and social existence, and establish norms of behaviors in the colonial<br>Caribbean. Two of Kincaid's texts, At the Bottom of the River and Annie John, are<br>analyzed in depth from this perspective.