THE GROTESQUE BODY

Notes /quotes from Rabelais and his World by Mikhail Bakhtin and its relevance to Trinidad's carnival, in particular jouvert and the concept / theory of grotesque imagery and the grotesque body.

The grotesque image reflects a phenonmenon in transformation, an as yet unfinished metamorphosis, of death and birth, growing and becoming. The relation to time is one determining trait of the grotesque image. The other indispensable trait is ambivalence. For in this image we find both poles of transformation, the old and the new, the dying and the procreating, the beginning and the end, the metamorphosis. 24

The grotesque image remians ambivalent and contradictory; they are ugly, monstrous, hideous from the point of view of "classic" aesthetics, that is, the aesthetics of the ready made and the completed.

Main elements in the system of grotesque images are copulation, pregnancy, birth, growth, old ag, disintegration, dismemberment.

“Mountains and abysses, such is the relief of the grotesque body; or speaking in architectural terms, towers and subterranean passages.” 317

The grotesue concept of the body is not a closed completed unit it is unfinished, outgrows itself and trangresses it own limits. It focuses on the parts of the body that are open to the outside world, where the world can both enter and exit and through which the body can also exit. therefore it emphasises on the apertures and convexities of the body, the open mouth, the genitals, the breasts, the phallus, the pot belly and the nose. The bodies disclosed its essense as a principle of growth which exceeds its own limits only in copulation, pregnancy, child birth, the throes of death, eating , drinking or defecation.

Common in the carnival events is an exposure of one’s body, there is blatant sexual behavior that during the two days of festivity is not frowned upon but almost expected, to all it is a time to “get on bad” and where “all o we is one”. 'Wining' a term used in Trinidad to refer to a dance that is the gyrating of ones pelvic region and it is used in a popular song in the carnival of 2010, which states “man wining on anything, woman wining on anything”. It is a motto of sorts for those partaking in the festival. Anywhere you look there are people wining on people, walls, post, pretty much anything … a release of built up energy, an opening of the body and its fusion with other bodies. This is most evident in Trinidad Jouvert which is the opening of the carnival parade , beginning in the early hours of the morning and finishing with the rising of the sun. During these hours ,participants and unexpected spectators are covered and pasted with mud, paint, oil and most recently chocolate. It is here in particular that all hierarchical systems and seperations by race, gender, culture and class are thrown out the window. It is the one equalizer that unites all bodies, there is no longer the individual but a unification of the masses. in the darkness all covered in the same mud with only the sound of the music and the direction of the collective to guide them.

It is here that Bahktins notion of the grotesque body comes into considerations. Bakhtin explains the grotesque as exaggerated and building on the negative and what is deemed inappropriate. The grotesque body is also defined as a body in the act of becoming. It is incomplete as it continually built up creating another body in the process. It is an open body that is connected with its environment and the other bodies within that environment. This is what jouvert encompasses. It is a metamorphosis.

As the body is the site that is built on during carnival , I would like to begin with the grotesque body in its rawest forms and continue to build on that body by studying how the grotesque body is furture communicated through costuming and exaggerations of various kinds, that aid in removing the individualistic private nature of the classical closed body and instead present an open body that is subject to heightened sensory awareness and sense of community and unity with other bodies during the carnival.

WORDS

There are certain terms and words I use that I take for granted. I expect everyone to know them, as they have always been a part of my vocabulary, but I now realize that my vocabulary is saturated with 'Trini' or Trinidadian words that only a Trinidadian can comprehend far less string together in the often used dialect of the island. So with that said I would like to clarify to the words - "mas", "masquearade" and the term " play mas"

mas - Mas is the Trinidadian word for masquerade. Some people prefer "mas" to carnival.

masquerade - To dress in carnival costume, dance and parade in the streets.

play mas, play mas', masquerade, play mask- To put on a costume and participate in a mas band or jump up in the streets. This is the key action of carnival from which everything else comes. The expression "to play mas" is part of Trinidadian vernacular, connected to the idea " to play yourself" or "do your thing"

Definitions taken from the glossary of Carnival - Culture in Action by Milla Cozart Riggio

Now there are also categories of mas such as pretty mas, ole mas, traditional mas, mud mas. These will be expanded on where necessary.


There are another few words I would like to clarify for people, because what is carnival for me is a country fair for others, and often when I speak of the word ecstasy people get ridiculously giddy ( I find this highly annoying) and blush with thoughts of my thesis as some sort of karma sutra or devotion to sexual pleasures. With that said these definitions I have taken from the good old oxford dictionary.

carnival
• noun 1 an annual period of public revelry involving processions, music, and dancing. 2 N. Amer. a travelling funfair or circus.

— DERIVATIVES carnivalesque adjective.
— ORIGIN Italian carnevale, from Latin carnelevamen ‘Shrovetide’, from caro ‘flesh’ + levare ‘put away’.

ecstasy
• noun (pl. ecstasies) 1 an overwhelming feeling of great happiness or joyful excitement. 2 an emotional or religious frenzy or trancelike state. 3 (Ecstasy) an illegal amphetamine-based synthetic drug with euphoric effects.

— ORIGIN from Greek ekstasis ‘standing outside oneself’


stage
• noun 1 a point, period, or step in a process or development. 2 a raised floor or platform on which actors, entertainers, or speakers perform. 3 (the stage) the acting or theatrical profession. 4 a scene of action or forum of debate. 5 a floor of a building. 6 each of two or more sections of a rocket or spacecraft that are jettisoned in turn when their propellant is exhausted. 7 Electronics a part of a circuit containing a single amplifying transistor or valve. 8 Geology a range of strata corresponding to an age in time, forming a subdivision of a series. 9 archaic a stagecoach.
• verb 1 present a performance of (a play or other show). 2 organize and participate in (a public event). 3 cause (something dramatic or unexpected) to happen.

— PHRASES hold the stage dominate a scene of action or forum of debate. set the stage for prepare the conditions for.
— DERIVATIVES stageable adjective.
— ORIGIN Old French estage ‘dwelling’, from Latin stare ‘to stand’.


architecture
• noun 1 the art or practice of designing and constructing buildings. 2 the style in which a building is designed and constructed. 3 the complex structure of something

Carnival - Stations of the road

I have noticed that references and comparisions to religion are often brought up when reading literature on Carnival. I have read about the trance-like state of ecstasy being compared to the feeling as if in prayer at church, isolated and completely involved. I have read of devoted costume designers like priest with all helping hands like devoted acolytes dedicated to the costume and the carnival as if it were their faith. References to pan yards as cathedrals where every year dedicated pan men and women will gather to practice, as if gathering for their daily mass of prayer. Then finally I thought to myself, that the actual carnival event of two days that takes place on the city's streets and is puntuated by stages along the given route bears resemblance to the Catholic tradition of the stations of the cross.The fourteen stations of the cross, marked by pray ,tell the story of the devotion of Christ and his journey to his crucifixion. This may seem an extreme reference but it leaves me wondering of ways to categorize my thesis and its layout ... as if if chapter were stations of the cross... or stages along the carnival route with the end result being an ecstatic revelation of the collective.

With that said I am now thinking ... this makes sense! ... because ever since I started researching for this thesis, it has been about the human experience weather it be individual or collective experience it was an experience that was allowed to occur during Trinidad's carnival. I have noted before that this is the people's second life, an other world or rather a world turned upside down where what was deemed strange, illegal, abnormal in the ordinary world is expected in this other world. This other world is temporary and entering into it is voluntary, but for those two days everything is done in excess with the ambition of all to achieve a state of ecstasy. So besides my own experiences, I came across some literature that held characters that spoke out of the experiences along this journey in this other world. These characters are Aldrick from Earl Lovelaces book ' The Dragon can't Dance' and the character in the poem 'Savannah Ghost' by Paul Keens - Douglas.
I wish to illustrate these characters and their journey much like how Christ's journey is documented by each station weather it be represented by paintings or carvings as it is in the catholic church.

I will also use quotes from both pieces of literature to further document the characters experience.



"Ah could hardly see dese damn people.
Is like everybody look alike, like dey
Join together.
Is like dis place is a jungle,
De people like ah wall round me,
Dey hot, sticky, sweaty, like they want to
stifle me,
Like dey have every smell in dis band,
In me nose, in me eye, in me mouth.
Is like ah jungle with vine, an’ color,
An’ snake, an’ bush,
Touchin’ me, roughin’ me, pullin’ me.
Is de rum, no de music, no is de people man.
Move foot move, jump, yu hear me, jump.
“Ah diggin’ horrors, because, all ah
Readin’ bout
Is guerillas, more laws, and wars”
Take me up foot, up, up over dis stinkin’ band’
Past all dese winding backsides, sweaty backs,
Bouncin’ bubbies, multinational bad – breath.
Up, up slowly, out de jungle,
Up, up slowly, out de jungle,
Up, up, up towards de clean sky.
O’ god ah could see the whole world now,
Trinidad is really ah island, ah didn’t believe dem,
But from coast to coast is water,
Black with oil, black with pitch, black with history
Not one hero in sight, is only mas!"

Excerpt from Savannah Ghost by Paul Keens - Douglas




"He wanted them to know that he will always be threatening there, a breath away from them. Some could'nt understand it, this refusal of the coins. They thought that they were not offering enough; and as he danced before them they made another journey into their pockets and showed him more coins. He didn't take the money - ' No, this couldn't happen! This dragon was crazy! This fellar wanted trouble!' But it was Carnival. Whoever heard someone calling the police for a Dragon.Aldrick growled and he spat and he moved to press against them, watched them grow more afraid, more confused "

Excerpt from 'The Dragon can't Dance' by Earl Lovelace

Rambling

The dreaded question I face when asked about my thesis is what does carnival have to do with architecture? I often begin by defining architecture as any space and giving my point of view; that both city streets and costume are the spaces that the body occupies during festive celebrations. The follow up question is then asked, “Don’t you have to design a building?” and I respond with the concept of the stage as possibly a planned built entity, an appropriated space selected by the masses or the body itself that acts as a stage to express oneself. With these proposed stages there are structures or perhaps a lack of structure that are then paraded upon it. Both the stage and the structures are the architecture I wish to talk about.

With that out of the way, I researched parallels between fashion or costuming and architecture. They both share similar methods and strategies towards their respected end product. They are both expressive of the designers and the people who occupy them. Both disciplines use and experiment with an array of materials that with technological advancements are able to contribute to designs within both fields. Costuming often takes on an architectonic nature with much attention paid to structure and movement as all costumes must be carried by the masquerader and compliment not hinder his movements. On the surface architecture can take on a costuming effect, with the facades or building skins acting as clothing or mask to the interiors. These skins may reflect or hide the buildings interior or and may be structural or purely aesthetic.

What is extremely important to carnival in particular is the fluidity and movement of the costumes that are paraded. Carnival was and still is an outlet for expression of emotions that are repressed during the rest of the year. Hence these costume structures act as extensions to the human body, with every limb and movement appearing larger and grander as it is echoed through the structures.

Another aspect of the costuming of Trinidad carnival is that it is ephemeral. Costumes are only used for the two parade days then neglected never to be paraded again. If lucky they are salvaged for odds and ends of braiding to be used in a newly designed costume. Fashion is also seen as fragile, superficial temporal or trendy where as architecture is regarded as solid permanent durable and strong.

The scale is also different. As mentioned before costuming and carnival uses the body as a stage, as a foundation for its designs where as architecture wishes to house the body or many bodies. However like carnival both architecture and fashion not only protect and shelter the body but are outlets for expressions of identity.

Both architecture and fashion adopt similar terminology, language and vocabulary in its execution and production of its end product. Both are influenced and inspired by similar innovations and by each other as well. They both carry with them a creative process that often begins as ideas on paper, only to materialize later as three dimensional objects.

So here it is established the similarities that lie between costume design and architecture structure. But festival of carnival is not about the static, the costume comes alive due to the individual that inhabits it the same way some architecture is designed and programmed to accommodate the individual who inhabits that space. Designs of costumes and what is classified as a costume has varied and been influenced greatly over the years. Politics, religion and culture all play an important part in its evolution and the costumes that are presently paraded on the streets of port of spain. Also technological advancements and shifts in the countries economy and concept of culture continue to play a vital role. These influences will further be discussed in another chapter.

In fashion often what stands out is that which challenges the norm. Carnival pushes this idea. Over the years costumes and lack of costume seek to challenge the officials and the onlookers. They are daring, controversial, crude and often seek to get a reaction, weather negative or positive, once it has evoked the senses, it has done its job. Donning a costume is often liberating and hence carnival is liberating. It is a world turned upside down and the costume is the added element that pushes the wearer to ecstatic heights unachievable in ‘ordinary’ day to day life. To be other than oneself is often the goal of some who wear elaborate costumes that transform the body’s appearance presenting a new body and on some some level a new self or true self.

Carnival like architecture can be used to give the individual a sense of identity, place and ecstasy. The body experiences and identifies with this.

Inside Out

"People were so to speak, reborn for new, purely human relations. These truly human relations were not only fruit of imagination or abstract thought; they were experienced. The utopian ideal and the realistic merged in this carnival experience, unique of its kind."

Rabelais and his World, Bakhtin

The reason why

I remember the moment, the epic culmination like it was yesterday. In the streets of Port of Spain, South quay to be exact I waited amongst the band members in anticipation for the stage created ahead. Security formed a human link barrier, corking the bottled up energy of the masqueraders. We rallied ourselves with the chant and movements of the year's jumbie dance. It was a tremendous amount of excitement in the milieu of bodies and costumes.

"Jumbie, Jumbie dey... outta body back to yuhself! ....Dip in the center do the jumbie dance, lean back and reverse do the jumbie dance ..."

Fresh in my mind was the unison of bodies, arms and legs jumping and pelting about, following the instructions of the song than had left a spell over the masqueraders. We were ready to display ourselves , to play ourselves. The jumbie was ready to come out, every sense had brimmed and was now overflowing in a mess of sweat, feathers, rain and beads. Rushing forward toward the stage I remember the vibrations of voices, music and bodies that left me speechless, breathless and removed. Floating out of body I could see the chaos of the street below, in that moment I saw the sweet revelry of an island that I felt more than ever I belonged to . I held this moment wondering what it was ,why it happened and when again I could soak up this joyous experience. It is with this thesis I choose to find the answers to these questions.

An Old Jewish Story

"Once upon a time there was a great traditional ritual for the inner protection and norisuhment of the people. The rabbi and all the people of the community went to a particular tree, in a a particular forest, in a particular place, on a particular day, and performed a highly prescribed ritual. Then, so the story goes, there were terrible times. A whole generation was scattered and the ritual was forgotten.

When things got better again, someone remembered that there was an old ritual for protection and norishment, but he could remember only its overall structure. The rabbi and the people went into the forest, but they'd forgotten exactly which tree was the right tree. So they chose a tree and performed the ritual as best they could. And it was sufficient.

More hard times came and another generation was excluded from the ritual. Somebody remembered that in the old days their ancestors had gone into the forest and done something, so the rabbi and the people went out into the forest and made up a ritual. And it was sufficient.

And then there were more bad times, and much more was lost. The people remembned that in the good old days their ancestors had done something or other, but they didn't know when or what or where. So they just went out and did the best they could. And it was sufficent.

And then there were more hard times, and all that was left was the vague memory that in the olden days somebody had done something. So the new generation went out and improvised and did the best they could, intending their new ritual to be for the protection and norishment of the people. And it was sufficient."

pg 86
ECSTASY Understanding the Psychology of Joy.
Robert A. Johnson

I find this story interesting as it shows that there is no concrete structure or system to make something or do something in order for it to be complete,correct or effective. It is if you attempt the task with the most of efforts and conciousness will be sufficient. The idea of ritual lies behind this thought, we can create our own ritual.

This is the same way I prehaps view my thesis and the every changing face of carnival. Its content over the years can't always be the same and it will not always be the same, but the underlying purpose of self expression and ecstatic release is ever present ,once we participate with full enthusiasm and conciousness toward the event and its cultural purpose.

It's at times such as these I realize the need to just "do it" and get fully involved with my thesis by being concious of my attempts and efforts to produce and express what I believe is trying to be said or created. At times I can't remember exactly which direction I was trying to take but i go ahead with the process as its purpose is still being fulfilled even though the end result may vary. This proves more effective than sitting back and trying to think of the "right" way or thing to do in order for it to be successful. The truth is there is no "right" way.