Die transgressiewe karnavaleske: ’n Fenomeen in die kabarettekste uit ’n Gelyke kans van Jeanne Goosen

Abstract

This article examines the phenomenon of the transgressive carnivalesque, a notion of Mikhail Bakhtin of breaking through social conventions and barriers, as it manifests in the cabaret texts in ’n Gelyke kans (“An even chance”) by Jeanne Goosen. The carnival on the town square represents a world of feasts, comedy, dance, costumes, masks, giants, monsters and trained animals. It includes comic verbal compositions like parody and vulgar burlesque. These texts can be recognised as subversive of the symbolic order and the Bakhtinian moments are clearly identifiable in each text. The research of Bakhtin, as a broad development of the carnivalesque into a powerful, critical subversion of all official words and hierarchies with far reaching consequences, are here applicable. Without being judgmental, Goosen sympathetically exposes man’s inborn, continuous search for the illusion of perfect happiness.