The Complexities of Carnival Identities in Earl Lovelace’s The Dragon Can’t Dance

Year 2019, Volume: 13 Issue: 1, 39 - 49, 30.06.2019

Ann Marie Simmonds

Abstract

If one were to identify three elements of Caribbean society that are integral to the region’s identity, they would be creole, calypso, and carnival. All three are interrelated but it is the latter, Carnival, that has shone a spotlight on the Caribbean and its people, through its adoption and reimagination in wider international spaces. In this paper, I look at Earl Lovelace’s landmark novel, The Dragon Can’t Dance, and discuss the way in which the three principal Afro-Trinidadian male characters construct their identity through the medium of Carnival. With changes to Carnival, these characters struggle to define themselves in relationship to a society and festival that is in flux. The novel is a detailed look at the way in which disenfranchised men seek to gain power through performance. It is also a reminder that today, as in 1979 when the novel was first published, the issue of identity and what it means to be Trinidadian, Caribbean and male is something the region continues to grapple with. 

Keywords

Carnival, identity, masculinity, Trinidad, performance

Earl Lovelace’in The Dragon Can’t Dance Adlı Eserinde Karnaval Kimlik Sorunsalları

Abstract

Karayiplerin bölgesel kimliğine esas olan üç özelliğini belirleyecek olsak, bunlar kreole, kalipso ve karnaval olacaktır. Her üç kavram da birbirleriyle bağlantılıdır fakat özellikle Karnaval, daha geniş mekânlarda uyarlanabilmesi ve yeniden tasarlanabilmesiyle Karayiplere ve halkına ışık tutan kavramdır. Bu metinde, Earl Lovelace’in önemli romanlarından The Dragon Can’t Dance incelenerek üç ana AfroTrinidadlı erkek karakterin nasıl Karnaval aracılığıyla kendi kimliklerini yeniden inşa ettikleri ele alınmıştır. Karnavalda değişiklikler yaparak, bu karakterler, değişken olan festival ve toplumla ilişki içerisinde olan kendi kimliklerini belirleme mücadelesi içerisindedirler. Roman hakları gasp edilmiş erkeklerin nasıl performans aracılığıyla güç kazanmaya çalıştıklarını detaylı bir şekilde anlatır. Aynı zamanda, kimlik edinim probleminin ve Trinidadlı veya Karayipli bir erkek olmanın ne anlama geldiğinin, romanın ilk yayınlandığı 1979 yılında olduğu gibi bugün de bölgenin boğuşmakta olduğu problemlerden olduğunu hatırlatır. 

Keywords

kimlik, karnaval, maskülenlik, Trinidad, performans

References

• Badinter, Elizabeth. X Y On masculine identity. Columbia University Press, 1995.
• Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. Translated by Hélène Iswolsky, Indiana University Press, 1984.
• Best, Curwen. Culture @ the cutting edge: Tracking Caribbean popular music. University of the West Indies Press, 2004.
• Connell, Raewyn. Masculinities. University of California Press, 2005.
• Dabydeen, David. “Man to pan.” New Statesman & Society, vol. 26, 1988, pp. 40-41.
• Danow, David. The spirit of carnival: Magical realism and the grotesque. The University Press of Kentucky, 2004.
• Eco, Umberto. “The frames of comic freedom.” Carnival! Edited by Thomas A Sebeok, Mouton Publishers, 1984, pp. 1-11.
• Hall, Stuart. “Introduction.” Carnival: hysteria, and writing: Collected essays and autobiography, edited by Allon White, Oxford University Press. 1993.
• Harris, Max. “The impotence of dragons: Playing devil in the Trinidad Carnival.” The Drama Review, vol. 42, no. 3, 1998, pp. 108-123.
• Hebdige, Dick. Cut n’ mix: Culture, identity and Caribbean music. Methuen, 1987.
• Hutcheon, Linda. A theory of parody: The teachings of twentieth-century art forms. University of Illinois Press, 2000.
• Lewis, Linden. “Masculinity and the dance of the dragon: Reading Lovelace discursively.” Feminist Review, vol. 59, 1998, pp. 164-185.
• Liverpool, Hollis. “Origins of rituals and customs in the Trinidad carnival: African or European?” The Drama Review, vol. 42, no. 3, 1998, pp. 24-37.
• Lovelace, Earl. The Dragon Can’t Dance. Persea, 1979.
• Manning, Frank. “Carnival in Antigua (Caribbean Sea): An indigenous festival in a tourist economy.” Anthropos, vol. 73, 1978, pp. 191-204.
• Martin, Randy. “Dance and its others: Theory, state, nation, and socialism.” Of the presence of the body: Essays on dance and performance theory, edited by Andre Lepecki, Wesleyan University Press, 2004, pp. 47-63.
• Ramchand, Kenneth. “Calling all dragons: The crumbling of Caribbean masculinity.” Interrogating Masculinity: Theoretical and Empirical Analyses, edited by Rhoda Reddock, University of West Indies Press, 2004, pp. 309-325.
• Ramchand, Kenneth. “Why the dragon can’t dance” An examination of IndianAfrican Relations in Lovelace’s The Dragon Can’t Dance.” Journal of West Indian Literature, vol. 2, no. 2, 1988, pp. 1-14.
• Rohlehr, Gordon. Calypso and society in pre-independence Trinidad. Rohlehr, 1990.
• Schecnher, Richard. “Carnival (theory) after Bakhtin.” Carnival: culture in action – the Trinidad experience, edited by Milla Cozart Riggio, Routledge, 2004, pp. 312.
• Winer, Lise. “Socio-cultural change and the language of calypso.” New West Indian Guide, vol. 60, no. 3/4, 1986, pp. 113-148.