Wiktionary
a. Resembling or characteristic of a carnival.
Wikipedia
Carnivalesque is a term used in the English translations of works written by the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin, which refers to a literary mode that subverts and liberates the assumptions of the dominant style or atmosphere through humor and chaos. Bakhtin traces the origins of the carnivalesque to the concept of carnival, itself related to the Feast of Fools, a medieval festival originally of the sub-deacons of the cathedral, held about the time of the Feast of the Circumcision (1 January), in which the humbler cathedral officials burlesqued the sacred ceremonies, releasing "the natural lout beneath the cassock." Also Bakhtin derives carnival and the carnivalization of literature from the reign of the “Serio-comical” with the examples of Socratic dialogues and Menippean satire. Within the Socratic dialogue carnival affects all people into the behavior and rituals in to the carnivalistic life, as in every individual is affected by carnival, meaning everyone is a constant participant of carnival. In the base of examples from the Menippean satire, the relativity of joy that subverts and creates a syncretic pageant that with humor and grotesque it weds and combines the sacred with the profane.
Usage examples of "carnivalesque".
The same traumatic excess that produces the excruciating pain of psychotic disintegration also provides us with the vicarious, carnivalesque thrill of watching social processes twisted and magnified, as in funhouse mirrors.
As Lewis understands, there's always something jovial and festive -- carnivalesque, Bakhtin would say -- about watching horror films, just as there used to be about attending public executions and tortures.
Two-thirds of me wanted to go home, but the remaining third still hoped for some little carnivalesque experience.
Out of the dusk the EMS van approached, a futile carnivalesque expression of color and noise.
This was the Saturday before the first Monday in August, and therefore the formal opening of Knype Wakes, the most carnivalesque of all the carnivals which enliven the four seasons in the Five Towns.
The multicolored, luminescent spots, when combined with the encroaching shadows, made the large room seem smaller, and somehow brought to the decreasing space the feeling of a Gypsy wagon or tent or other fantastic carnivalesque setting.