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Title The Play of Carnivalesque: A Dialogic Study of Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk about Kevin and DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little

Author(s) Nighat Zaitoon

Abstract This research project investigates Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism in Lionel Shriver’s novel We Need to Talk about Kevin and DBC Pierre’s novel Vernon God Little. The common thread of plot that runs across the texts is the incidence of mass murder by a juvenile school boy at school premises. Both the novels We Need to Talk about Kevin and Vernon God Little provide plenty of space to discuss Bakhtinian intertextuality, polyphony, heteroglossia and carnivalesque within the individual text of a novel as well as across the novels. The main argument of the study is that there is diversity of dialogue in socio-cultural, psychological and narrative realms of these novels. The narrative before the mass murder comprises a rhythmic polyphony that originates as low vibes of thought and action, gradually gathers momentum, and finally turns to a screaming noise of the crime-scene situation created by the protagonist. There are ripples of intense voices that sneak into some unusual facets of human nature or society. For instance, an unusual bonding between a loveless mother, Eva Kutchadourian, and an A-normative son, Kevin, in Lionel Shriver’s novel We Need to Talk About Kevin develops a unique dialogic world. In the same way, DBC Pierre’s novel Vernon God Little comprises heteroglossia of narratives between convicted innocent and the real mass murderer. The intersection of these dialogic perspectives across the selected novels seems to decode the larger scenario of ongoing dialogic relationships in American society. The research method used in the project is textual analysis. The study is likely to be a significant edition in the production of knowledge in the field of Michael Bakhtin’s Dialogism.

Type Thesis/Dissertation MS

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Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2019-11-19

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