Zaira Azhar2025-11-302025-11-302021https://escholar.umt.edu.pk/handle/123456789/14050This study aims to analyze Jean Genet’s play ‘The Balcony’ from the lens of Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of Carnivalesque and Mary Russo’s idea of The Female Grotesque. Jean Genet’s play ‘The Balcony’ is one of the well-known masterpiece in the Theatre of the Absurd which represents the theme of illusionary life verses realistic life. This research explores Genet’s play ‘The Balcony’ from a Carnivalesque and feministic perspective. The study aims to investigate that how Genet’s play is a representation of Bakhtinian Carnival and how the idea of ‘The Female Grotesque’ can be related to the female characters in the play. The study is based on a qualitative approach method and the model used for the research is textual analysis. Textual analysis is a methodology that requires the understanding of language and the symbols in a text. The data is collected from the play ‘The Balcony’ and is analyzed from two different lenses. The first part covers the analysis of Bakhtinian Carnival and its major aspects. ‘The Balcony’ represents a carnivalized world where the roles and powers are subverted. It represents the brothel as a place of illusions and fantasies where everyone is free from the harsh reality of the outside world and the official system is mocked. The second part covers the idea of ‘The Female Grotesque’. It covers the analysis of the female characters in the play to present them as grotesque feminine bodies. The study contributes to the fact that Bakhtin’s carnival theory holds a great importance in Genet’s absurd play ‘The Balcony’. The research discovers that these illusions of power exists in every individual, hence a person can create a carnival world in his illusions to escape the class system of the society. The study contributes to explore Jean Genet’s other works from Bakhtin’s Carnivalesque framework and highlights the importance of the grotesque in the field of feminism.enThesis