How does Disney create an atmosphere of carnival in its vacation experience? Bakhtin applies the theory of carnival to literature and literary genre. For this project, you should choose a few specific claims from “Carnival and Carnivalesque” to apply as a lens to the Disney experience. In applying the reading as a lens, think about how the notion of carnival both fits and does not fit the Disney experience. Use both what fits and what does not fit to develop your analysis of Disney.

A successful lens will not try to apply every aspect of the reading to every aspect of Disney. Therefore, it is important that you tightly focus your analysis of both subjects. You should focus on one particular attraction or experience you can have through Disney—perhaps focusing on Peter Pan’s Flight, or La Nouba, or getting your haircut at the Barber Shop in Main Street USA.

In order to successfully apply Bahktin as a lens, you will first have to carefully analyze this text. Consider the various ways we have already practiced critically analyzing texts in the class. What moves does he make to rhetorically persuade you of his messages? Can you identify what claims are being stated (and implied) and how they are supported? Try to uncover his unstated assumptions: given its overt claim, what must the text also already believe?

Then do the same with your examples from Disney; work to provide a 10-on-1 analysis of the experience.

Avoid turning your analysis into a compare/contrast—your essay should always be focused on Disney by seeing it in terms of Bahktin’s ideas about carnival. You’ll want to consider how Bahktin can help you see Disney more clearly, both through what seems to fit as well as what doesn’t.

Your finished essay should be about 4 pages in length, and should include both direct quotes and paraphrases from Bahktin, cited properly using MLA citation style.