Some Novels are Novels While Others are Not: Carnivalesque and Contemporaneity in Dambudzo Marechera's House of Hunger
Keywords:
Novelness, African novel, Heteroglossia, Carnivalesque, Contemporary
Abstract
This article aims at investigating whether or not there is novelness as defined by Mikhail Bakhtin in Dambudzo Marechera’s House of Hunger. It focuses on Bakhtin’s concepts of carnivalesque and contemporaneity in examining the quality of novelness in House of Hunger. Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of novelness says that the novel has its own quality that differentiates it from other genres. It argues that this quality is realised through heteroglossia, carnivalesque, polyphony, genre-absorption and contemporaneity or contact with the present. Carnivalesque is the use of language of debasement, parody and travesty in sharing meaning. It also refers to parodying other genres which is a key element in the novel. Contemporaneity refers to the novel’s contact with living memory in contrast with the epic which is related to glorification of the past that is largely not linked to the present circumstances of the time. After examination of the novel, it has been observed that the novel exhibits elements of carnivalesque as a criticism of both society and other literary genres. It has also been observed that issues shared in the novel are contemporary and, therefore, key to issues relating to the reading public. The article, therefore, concludes that, based on carnivalesque and contemporaneity, there are elements of novelness in Dambudzo Marechera’s House of Hunger For that reason, House of Hunger is a novel.References
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20. Veit-Wild, F. (1997). Carnival and Hybridity in Texts by Dambudzo Marechera and Lesego, Journal of Southern African Studies, 23 (4), 553-564.
21. Wylie, D. (1991). Language Thieves: English-Language Strategies in Two Zimbabwean Novellas. English in Africa, 18(2), 39–62.
2. Aschkenasy, N. (2007). Reading Ruth through a Bakhtinian lens: The carnivalesque in a Biblical Tale. Journal of Biblical Literature, 126 (3), 437-453.
3. Bakhtin, M. (1981). ‘Discourse in the Novel’ in The Dialogic Imagination; Four Essays. Edited by Holquist, M. Translated by Emerson, C. and Holquist, M. Austin; 4. University of Texas Press.
4. Bakhtin, M. (1981). ‘Epic and Novel: Toward a Methodology for the Study of the Novel’ in The Dialogic Imagination; Four Essays. Edited by Holquist, M. Translated by Emerson, C. and Holquist, M. Austin; University of Texas Press.
5. Bakhtin, M. M. (1984). Rabelais and His World. Bloomington; Indiana University Press.
6. Baldick, C. (2001). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, 2nd edition. Oxford; Oxford University Press.
7. Booker, M. K. (1998). The African Novel: An Introduction. Oxford; James Currey Ltd.
8. Emerson, C. (2010). All the Same the Words Don't Go Away: Essays on Authors, Heroes, Aesthetics, and Stage Adaptations from the Russian Tradition. Boston; Academic Studies Press.
9. Erasmus, D and A Grafton. (2015). The Praise of Folly. Princeton; Princeton University Press.
10. Galligan, E. L. (2005). Novels That Are Not Novels, The Sewanee Review, 113 (2), 324-326.
11. Gaylard, G. (1993). Dambudzo Marechera and Nationalist Criticism. English in Africa, 20(2), 89–105.
12. Habila, H. (2006). On Dambudzo Marechera: The Life and Times of an African Writer. The Virginia Quarterly Review, 82(1), 251–260.
13. Hof, D, Grossman, R, and Pablo F. Fenjves. (2015). The Art of the Pimp: One Man's Search for Love, Sex, and Money; Regan Arts.
14. Jaanus, M. (2013). Happiness and Madness. Culture/Clinic, 1, pp. 43-65.
15. Lukacs, G. (1971). The Theory of the Novel: A Historico-Philosophical Essay on the Forms of Great Epic Literature. Translated by Bostock, A. Cambridge; the M.I.T. 16. Press. Moyo, M. (2024). Novelness in the Zimbabwean Novel: A Bakhtinian Examination ofBlack-Authored Prose Fiction in English [Unpublished PhD thesis]. University of Zambia.
17. Shklovsky, V. (2007). ‘Art as Technique’. In Richter, D. H. The critical Edition: Classic texts and contemporary Trends. Third Edition. Boston; Bedford/St. Martin’s.
18. Sukel, K. 2013. This is Your Brain on Sex. The Science Behind the Search for Love.New York; Simon and Schuster Paperbacks.
19. Veit-Wild, F. (1992). Dambudzo Marechera: A Source Book on his Life and Work. Harare; University of Zimbabwe Press.
20. Veit-Wild, F. (1997). Carnival and Hybridity in Texts by Dambudzo Marechera and Lesego, Journal of Southern African Studies, 23 (4), 553-564.
21. Wylie, D. (1991). Language Thieves: English-Language Strategies in Two Zimbabwean Novellas. English in Africa, 18(2), 39–62.
Published
2025-01-10
How to Cite
Moyo, G. and Crehan, S. (2025) “Some Novels are Novels While Others are Not: Carnivalesque and Contemporaneity in Dambudzo Marechera’s House of Hunger”, Journal of Law and Social Sciences, 6(2), pp. 1-11. doi: https://doi.org/10.53974/unza.jlss.6.2.1297.
Section
Articles