Manifestation of the Mask in Sa’adallah Wannus’ Play The Elephant, Oh Lord of Ages

نوع المستند : المقالة الأصلية

المؤلفون

1 American University in Cairo As part of the Requirements of the Doctoral Program

2 Masters of English and Comparative Literature, American University in Cairo As part of the Requirements of the Doctoral Program

المستخلص

This paper tackles Sa’adallah Wannus’ play The Elephant, Oh Lord of Ages as a manifestation of the playwright’s employment of features of Bakhtin’s carnivalesque. The paper focuses on the role of the mask as an effective tool in power relations. Mask is utilized for accomplishing various purposes. In Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnival, mask is related to gaiety, collectiveness and renewal. It is also related to concealment, which allows its user to shelter his nature, identity, notions, weakness or feelings. Since the mask is utilized to seek superiority or protection, it is a tool of the powerful and the powerless alike. Mask impacts power relationships, and its manipulation helps in disturbing, destabilizing or displacing them. It is also closely related to strategies of coping, survival and resistance. The paper tackles mask as a device of survival in a manner that does not aid its users to achieve any gain; the employment of mask emanates from fear and lack of proper self-esteem. Mask is portrayed in Sa’adallah Wannus’ play, The Elephant, Oh Lord of Ages as a means of shelter, concealing objection to tyrannical systems, resistance to injustice and rejection of the status-quo.

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