| dc.description.abstract | This thesis examines the carnivalesque nature of The Moor's Last Sigh bv Salman
Rushdie in relation to Gargantua and Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais. In particular, I
focus on the abundant banquet imagery of this novel by borrowing terminology coined by
Mikhail Bakhtin in his dissertation Rabelais and His World. Bakhtin believes that the
carnivalesque nature of the folk promotes a world that encourages the celebration of
material life. Eating and drinking promote laughter, which banishes fear. Rushdie enjoys
the portrait ofthe unregenerate, laughing human, who is unafraid to challenge any
orthodoxies, including religious orthodoxies. Rushdie creates a carnivalesque narrator
who is morally ambivalent and physically grotesque to tell the tales in The Moor’s Last
Sigh. In this thesis I explore the carnivalesque portrayal of food, and its effect on love,
language and nationality.
Rushdie uses pepper to define the love stories of this novel. Spices serve as a
metaphor for the relationship of these characters, who defy social and religious
convention to unite. “Pepper love” is passionate, fearless, and volatile. Banquet images
champion the organic world. Eating, drinking, copulating, birthing and dying are
common human experiences that reveal the bond between individuals. I examine food’s
role in romantic love, sexual love and the love of family.
Food’s effect on language is paramount. Over meals people converse, debate, and
share ideas. I examine the links between speech and food, specifically focusing on
Moor’s storytelling abilities and his role as a chef Moor uses the techniques of the
carnivalesque barker, who uses language to both praise and abuse the audience. Food influences his abilities to tell tales about his experiences as the descendant of Vasco da
Gama.
The tale of India’s history as a colony due to the West’s search for spices serves at
the historical vehicle for this novel. Spices define the volatile relationship of the East and
West, although Rushdie represents this relationship as more complex than an Us versus
Them dichotomy. Food’s role in defining nationalism can be both positive and negative,
but Rushdie believes that the banquet serves as a paradigm for improving relations
amongst humans - the more varied and numerous the “guests’ at he feast the more
interesting and successful the party. The carnival banquet reflects future promise for a
utopian world. | |
