This paper aims at exploring the politics of the carnivalesque in Yusuf Idris's satirical play al-Farafir through the lens of the Carnivalesque concept propounded by Michael Bakhtin. It attempts to prove that the carnivalesque, besides being a terrain in which laughter is stimulated, is a serious weapon for launching satirical attacks on man's follies, venal tendencies and social institutions, a tool of subverting and defying abusive authority, conventional attitudes and disseminated ideologies, and a fertile terrain for black humor. In his black humorous, darkly farcical, satirical, existential and politically charged play al-Farafir, Idris presents us, in a black humorous vein and a comic guise, with a story about the relation between a Master ("Al Sayed" in Arabic) and his skinny, strange-looking servant dressed in a clownish suit (Farfoor) and the eternal struggle between life and death. The play highlights the discursive practices that a common Egyptian man (represented in the play as a servant, a slave, or Farfoor) faces in a dictatorial regime that aims at constructing a stereotypical subjugated identity of the commoners while supporting the power of the powerful and the exploiter, showing how power practices infiltrate society to construct discursive identities.
Mohammed Ali El-Hoseiny, A. (2022). Lighting the Torch of the Carnivalesque Amid the Heart of the Existential Darkness: The Politics in al-Farafir by Yusuf Idris. Annals of the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University, 50(3), 233-253. doi: 10.21608/aafu.2022.235624
MLA
Ahmed Mohammed Ali El-Hoseiny. "Lighting the Torch of the Carnivalesque Amid the Heart of the Existential Darkness: The Politics in al-Farafir by Yusuf Idris", Annals of the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University, 50, 3, 2022, 233-253. doi: 10.21608/aafu.2022.235624
HARVARD
Mohammed Ali El-Hoseiny, A. (2022). 'Lighting the Torch of the Carnivalesque Amid the Heart of the Existential Darkness: The Politics in al-Farafir by Yusuf Idris', Annals of the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University, 50(3), pp. 233-253. doi: 10.21608/aafu.2022.235624
VANCOUVER
Mohammed Ali El-Hoseiny, A. Lighting the Torch of the Carnivalesque Amid the Heart of the Existential Darkness: The Politics in al-Farafir by Yusuf Idris. Annals of the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University, 2022; 50(3): 233-253. doi: 10.21608/aafu.2022.235624
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