Some Novels are Novels While Others are Not: Carnivalesque and Contemporaneity in Dambudzo Marechera's House of Hunger

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.