Lived Carnival, Habitus, and Resistance: A Childhood Forged Through Violence

• In Event: Roundtable Session 106
  In Roundtable Session: Questioning Curricular Norms: Just Wars, Best Practices, and Hidden Curriculum

Abstract

As a researcher and a survivor of long-term childhood violence, I am dedicated to challenging the multiple disparities produced and reproduced for young survivors of long-term childhood violence in our K-12 public school systems. This paper turns to Bakhtin’s (1968) concept of carnival and critical theory to explore the argument that children constructed through and by familial violence are a refracted image of our inherently violent authoritative structures and are subsequently resisting these violent forces through carnival as a lived experience. Extending the argument that youth with long-term traumatic childhood histories experience lived carnival, the paper troubles the traditional use of Bakhtin’s concept of carnival by explicating two theoretical tensions.

Author

• Tracey Pyscher, University of Minnesota