Year 9 Twelfth Night Homework: The Carnivalesque

The goal of tonight’s homework is to familiarize you (and your classmates) with different carnivals from around the world. Learning more about how carnivalsfunction today and in history will help you to understand why Shakespeare created an “upside down” world in Twelfth Night.

What’s the carnivalesque again?

It’s a literary mode described by a famous literary critic Mikhael Bahktin. It is related to the kinds of things that happen in carnivals: hierarchy and everyday power dynamics are overturned. (You know when the Year 13s throw the teachers in a pool on the last day of their classes? That’s a perfect example!) During carnivals people wear costumes, assume different identities, behave in all sorts of crazy ways, make fun of people in positions of power. When you see those things happening in literature, you’re noticing the carnivalesque!

Your task: Create a 3-slide PowerPoint presentation that will give your classmates a quick sense of the holiday. Your goal here is to present basic facts and helpful images that will give us a sense of the atmosphere of these wonderful events.

You will be assigned one of five festivals:

  • Twelfth Night (Elizabethan England)
  • Mardi Gras (Contemporary New Orleans, USA)
  • Carnaval (Contemporary Brazil)
  • April Fool’s Day OR Halloween (Contemporary USA and other places)
  • Saturnalia (Ancient Rome)

Step 1: Research your festival on 2-3 websites (you may use Wikipedia as one source). Don’t go nuts. Skim for the basic information.

Step 2: Create your slides according to the outline below. You won’t be speaking, just viewing, so include the full text of any key facts you want your classmates to know. Remember that copying directly from a website is considered plagiarism. Be sure to summarize information in your own words.

Step 3: Cite your websites on the final slide of your presentation.

Step 4: Upload your presentation so that it is ready to be viewed tomorrow in class. NO EXCUSES!

Step 3: Cite your websites on the final slide of your presentation.

Step 4: Upload your presentation to your h:/ drive account and be prepared to show it tomorrow in class. NO EXCUSES! You’ll be letting down all of your group members if you don’t do your part of the assignment. Remember to save as .ppt. School doesn’t have the super fancy new version.