Carnivalesque Parody of Academia through Jewish Self-Mockery in Howard Jacobson’s Coming from Behind

Abstract

Sefton Goldberg is an English lecturer who works at Wrottesley Polytechnic in the Midlands. As a Jew, he feels disconnected in his personal and professional life. His peers seem to flourish in their pursuits, which makes him mock the institution where he works. He gives the impression that his students are unworthy of his lectures and remarks on how the Polytechnic ties up with the local football team for relevance and reputation. This paper applies Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the carnivalesque to expose the hypocrisy of the institution as perceived through the eyes of a Jewish protagonist. His sense of outsiderhood leads him to use satire as a means of mocking both himself and the world that has reduced him to feeling like a lesser achiever.