A Comparative Study of the Place of burlesque and Carnival laughter in Don Quixote and My Uncle Napoleon

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

département de français

10.22059/jor.2022.342046.2296

Abstract

Bakhtin, first in Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics then in François Rabelais and popular culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance refers to Don Quixote as a great example of carnival laughter. Carnival for him means the reversal of laws and traditions. Burlesque trick that allows this laughter to emerge. The author while mocking the traditions also falls into the literary tradition. He turns the eloquent style into a ridiculous one. Pezeshkzad works in the novel In My Uncle Napoleon relying on Burlesque's abilities to make carnival laughter. This results in a novel in which through inversion, the effects of traditions and beliefs become the subject of laughter. In Iran using burlesque to create traditional laughter is old. The resemblance between Don Qiuxote and My Uncle Napoleon should not be seen only from the point of view of sociological critique, but attributed to a tradition that has a long history in Iran. That is where the glorious and serious aspect of literature and beliefs is ridiculed.

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