This thesis explores the form that resistance takes in poetry slams.

In this study, Mikhail Bakhtins

theory of carnival is applied to the poetry slam as a contemporary form of resistance. Carnival
provides a place outside of everyday life where different rules are in effect. Through the carnival,
participants see new possibilities for their everyday lives. The purpose of this thesis is to
demonstrate whether poetry slams show carnivalesque resistance. (p.3, in totalitate!)

All the acts of the drama of world history were performed before a chorus of the laughing people.
Without hearing this chorus we cannot understand the drama as a whole. (Bakhtin 1968:474) (p.6)


Poets engage with topics of race, gender, discrimination, politics, failed love, or any topicsacred
or profanethat they desire while they stand upon the stage with the microphone before their lips
and the crowd waiting to respond in front of them. Ears waiting for feedback hear the sudden cheer
as the last stanza fades. With the poems performance completed, the poet finds a way back into
the audience to sit, listen, and offer verbal accolades to the next performances. (p. 5)

DEFINITION pp. 6-7 Poetry slams have been described as a means to address the modern human
condition by bringing to life...personal, political, social and spiritual concerns while knocking the
socks off an audience through the artful and entertaining application of performance (Smith and
Kraynak 2009:5). Poetry slams are competitions that welcome performers regardless of their skills or
status, providing a place for people coming from diverse circumstances and backgrounds to take 2

the stage to elocute about matters that are a part of their everyday existences. A common saying
with poetry slams is that the points are not the point, the point is poetry (Smith and Kraynak
2009:19).

The competition provides a format for performers to say something about which they feel deeply,
gain feedback from judges scoring, and hear the reactions of the audience. Poetry slams were
started as a way to bring vitality back into poetry performance events that were perceived as having
grown into stale poetry readings composed of academics and their literary companions (Smith and
Kraynak 2009:18). (p.7)

With this broader debate over resistance in mind, the poetry slams potential for resistance will be
studied using Bakhtins concept of the carnival. Mikhail Bakhtin conceived of carnival as a form of
resistance. Carnival provides a time and place where the existing social order becomes 'uncrowned'
and inverted through the practices of the participants allowing laughter and critique to challenge
the dominant discourses (Gardiner 2000:65). Carnival relies on the participation of everyone at the
event to create an alternative social order so that people can relate to each other on an equal basis
during the carnival time. The potential for resistance in the carnival will be questioned. How well
does the poetry slam fulfill the attributes of the carnival? On the other hand, how is the carnival
contradicted by practices in poetry slams? (p.8)


The three main concepts, dialogue, the act, and carnival, will be used to illustrate how ordinary
people can be involved in a particular form of resistance. Each of those three concepts will be
outlined and explained below. Since dialogue provides the foundation for discussing Bakhtin's
theory, it will be examined first. This will then be followed by a brief discussion of Bakhtin's
philosophy of the act. Building off the two other concepts, the carnival will be discussed as a form
of resistance. (p.13)