THE POETICS OF THE PSEUDO-CARNIVAL OF GEORGE ORWELL’S NOVEL “1984”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55808/1999-4214.2026-1.21Keywords:
dystopia, carnival, pseudo-carnival, genre, carnival culture, worldviewAbstract
The purpose of this article is to explore the poetics of the pseudo-carnival of George Orwell’s novel “1984”. The emergence of new approaches to the definition of genre categories and modern methodological tools contributes to new perspectives in literary studies. The authors of the article proceed from the definition of genre as a movable structure that is not only constantly transformed under the influence of the development of literature, but also generates or contributes to the formation of new genre forms. In modern literature, the genre of dystopia serves as the emergence of related genres such as alternative history, cyberpunk, etc. This circumstance actualizes the research of the dystopian genre as a basic form for modern artistic narratives, which contain genre features of dystopia. A brief review of the literature allows us to determine the degree of investigation of the genre nature of the novel by the British writer “1984”. The proposed article attempts to analyze the novel by G. Orwell’s “1984” from the point of view of the presence in it of the features of a pseudo-carnival, which is defined as a phenomenon opposite to carnival. The analysis of the poetics of the pseudo-carnival of the novel is based on the concept of carnival by M. Bakhtin and his thesis on the carnivalization of literature. The poetics of the analyzed dystopian novel is based on the juxtaposition of carnival poetics. The article provides a comparative analysis of carnival and pseudo-carnival poetics.
