Components of carnival in novel “Sayyidat al-Qamar” By Jokha Al-Harthi Based on Bakhtin’s Theory

Mikhail Bakhtin (born in1895) achieves the concept of Carnival while investigating the characteristics of novelistic prose (which is a good platform for creating a polyphonic atmosphere and dealing with one-sidedness and authoritarianism in the culture of every society. According to Bakhtin, the novel, like medieval carnivals, is a place for the convergence of the upper and lower voices in the society and the disassembly of dominant hierarchies and discourses. He discusses categories such as otherness, polyphony, grotesque realism, chronotope, death from laughter, irony, etc. in Carnivalesque novel. He believes that the novel has the capacity to create a network of these concepts. Using a multi-layered story on the life of Omani people, especially women and slaves in the era of slavery and fundamental social, political, and cultural changes in the country, Jokha Alharthi, an Omani author, has created the Carnival world that challenges many dominant discourses and established norms. The present study intends to examine the components of Carnival in the current novel through a analytical approach. The results suggest that factors such as the creation of numerous characters from different classes, as well as the use of grotesque ideal elements such as exaggeration and disruption of social norms and life and death intermingled, have caused different ideas to have a similar voice in a dialogical space and beyond the power of the author.