Barry Stephenson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199732753
- eISBN:
- 9780199777310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732753.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Religion and Society
The focus of this chapter is the carnivalesque character of Wittenberg’s Luther festivals, especially Luther’s Wedding. The historical suppression of carnival and popular culture in the centuries ...
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The focus of this chapter is the carnivalesque character of Wittenberg’s Luther festivals, especially Luther’s Wedding. The historical suppression of carnival and popular culture in the centuries following the Reformation is presented. The chapter argues that Wittenberg’s festivals represent the reemergence of a festive popular culture. Wittenberg’s festivals are interpreted as a form of a mimesis and sympathetic magic, as individuals attempt to actualize, through performance and reenactment, a remembered convivial culture of the past associated with medieval carnival.Less
The focus of this chapter is the carnivalesque character of Wittenberg’s Luther festivals, especially Luther’s Wedding. The historical suppression of carnival and popular culture in the centuries following the Reformation is presented. The chapter argues that Wittenberg’s festivals represent the reemergence of a festive popular culture. Wittenberg’s festivals are interpreted as a form of a mimesis and sympathetic magic, as individuals attempt to actualize, through performance and reenactment, a remembered convivial culture of the past associated with medieval carnival.
Julie Coleman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199549375
- eISBN:
- 9780191720772
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549375.003.0013
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics, Lexicography
This chapter draws together glossaries dealing with the slang of various branches of the entertainment industry: the circus, carnival, and stage. Later glossaries deal with the slang of swing, which ...
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This chapter draws together glossaries dealing with the slang of various branches of the entertainment industry: the circus, carnival, and stage. Later glossaries deal with the slang of swing, which introduces the relationship between popular music and slang and particularly the influence of African-Americans on slang that is to be so evident in the next volume.Less
This chapter draws together glossaries dealing with the slang of various branches of the entertainment industry: the circus, carnival, and stage. Later glossaries deal with the slang of swing, which introduces the relationship between popular music and slang and particularly the influence of African-Americans on slang that is to be so evident in the next volume.
Shannon Dudley
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195175479
- eISBN:
- 9780199851522
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195175479.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
A symbol of Trinidadian culture, the steelband has made an extraordinary transformation since its origins: from junk metal to steel orchestra, and from disparaged underclass pastime to Trinidad and ...
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A symbol of Trinidadian culture, the steelband has made an extraordinary transformation since its origins: from junk metal to steel orchestra, and from disparaged underclass pastime to Trinidad and Tobago’s national instrument. This book looks at the musical thinking that ignited this transformation, and the way it articulates Afro-Trinidadian tradition, carnival, colonial authority, and nationalist politics. The book tells the story of the steelband from the point of view of musicians who overcame the disadvantages of poverty and prejudice with their extraordinary ambition. Literally referring to the poor neighborhoods nestled in the hills bordering Port of Spain to the East, “Behind the Bridge,” used in the title of this book, is also a metaphor for the conditions of social disadvantage and cultural resistance that shaped the steelband movement in the various Afro-Trinidadian communities where it first took root. The book further explores the implications of the steelband’s “nationalization” in post-independence Trinidad and Tobago, and contemporary steelband musicians’ preoccupation with the formally adjudicated annual Panorama competition. In discussing the intersection of musical thinking, festivity, and politics, this book connects questions about the history of the steelband to general questions about the relation between popular culture and nationalism.Less
A symbol of Trinidadian culture, the steelband has made an extraordinary transformation since its origins: from junk metal to steel orchestra, and from disparaged underclass pastime to Trinidad and Tobago’s national instrument. This book looks at the musical thinking that ignited this transformation, and the way it articulates Afro-Trinidadian tradition, carnival, colonial authority, and nationalist politics. The book tells the story of the steelband from the point of view of musicians who overcame the disadvantages of poverty and prejudice with their extraordinary ambition. Literally referring to the poor neighborhoods nestled in the hills bordering Port of Spain to the East, “Behind the Bridge,” used in the title of this book, is also a metaphor for the conditions of social disadvantage and cultural resistance that shaped the steelband movement in the various Afro-Trinidadian communities where it first took root. The book further explores the implications of the steelband’s “nationalization” in post-independence Trinidad and Tobago, and contemporary steelband musicians’ preoccupation with the formally adjudicated annual Panorama competition. In discussing the intersection of musical thinking, festivity, and politics, this book connects questions about the history of the steelband to general questions about the relation between popular culture and nationalism.
James Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267718
- eISBN:
- 9780520948624
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267718.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
“The entire town is disguised” declared a French tourist of eighteenth-century Venice. And, indeed, maskers of all ranks—nobles, clergy, imposters, seducers, con men—could be found mixing at every ...
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“The entire town is disguised” declared a French tourist of eighteenth-century Venice. And, indeed, maskers of all ranks—nobles, clergy, imposters, seducers, con men—could be found mixing at every level of Venetian society. Even a pious nun donned a mask and male attire for her liaison with the libertine Casanova. This book offers a spirited analysis of masking in this carnival-loving city. It draws on a wealth of material to explore the world view of maskers, both during and outside of carnival, and reconstructs their logic: covering the face in public was a uniquely Venetian response to one of the most rigid class hierarchies in European history. This vivid account goes beyond common views that masking was about forgetting the past and minding the muse of pleasure to offer fresh insight into the historical construction of identity.Less
“The entire town is disguised” declared a French tourist of eighteenth-century Venice. And, indeed, maskers of all ranks—nobles, clergy, imposters, seducers, con men—could be found mixing at every level of Venetian society. Even a pious nun donned a mask and male attire for her liaison with the libertine Casanova. This book offers a spirited analysis of masking in this carnival-loving city. It draws on a wealth of material to explore the world view of maskers, both during and outside of carnival, and reconstructs their logic: covering the face in public was a uniquely Venetian response to one of the most rigid class hierarchies in European history. This vivid account goes beyond common views that masking was about forgetting the past and minding the muse of pleasure to offer fresh insight into the historical construction of identity.
Teofilo F. Ruiz
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691153575
- eISBN:
- 9781400842247
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691153575.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter assesses the relationship between Carnival and the annual Corpus Christi celebrations in late medieval and early modern Spain. Carnival has always been associated with revelry, ...
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This chapter assesses the relationship between Carnival and the annual Corpus Christi celebrations in late medieval and early modern Spain. Carnival has always been associated with revelry, subversive inversions of the social order, and transgressive behavior. Meanwhile, Corpus Christi is the high point of the Catholic devotional cycle in early modern Spain. Although it seems odd to juxtapose a feast such as Carnival with that of the Corpus Christi, there was a progression—uneven but perceptible—from the carnivalesque to the elaborate appropriation of some of these allegedly subversive themes of Carnival by the carefully programmed procession of the living body of Christ through the streets of Iberian cities.Less
This chapter assesses the relationship between Carnival and the annual Corpus Christi celebrations in late medieval and early modern Spain. Carnival has always been associated with revelry, subversive inversions of the social order, and transgressive behavior. Meanwhile, Corpus Christi is the high point of the Catholic devotional cycle in early modern Spain. Although it seems odd to juxtapose a feast such as Carnival with that of the Corpus Christi, there was a progression—uneven but perceptible—from the carnivalesque to the elaborate appropriation of some of these allegedly subversive themes of Carnival by the carefully programmed procession of the living body of Christ through the streets of Iberian cities.
Elizabeth McAlister
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195149180
- eISBN:
- 9780199835386
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195149181.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This essay explores the contemporary legacies of colonial religious discourses, by examining how participants in Haiti’s annual Rara festival—a Lenten carnival and public performance of Haitian ...
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This essay explores the contemporary legacies of colonial religious discourses, by examining how participants in Haiti’s annual Rara festival—a Lenten carnival and public performance of Haitian Vodou—at once inherit and transform the anti-Jewish sentiments of the clergy in colonial Saint Domingue. Through an active identification with the Jews who “killed Jesus,” disenfranchised Haitians reinvent the European demonization of Jews and Africans, deconstructing colonial religious categories from within, in order to craft rituals of resistance to their country’s predominantly Catholic and mulatto elites.Less
This essay explores the contemporary legacies of colonial religious discourses, by examining how participants in Haiti’s annual Rara festival—a Lenten carnival and public performance of Haitian Vodou—at once inherit and transform the anti-Jewish sentiments of the clergy in colonial Saint Domingue. Through an active identification with the Jews who “killed Jesus,” disenfranchised Haitians reinvent the European demonization of Jews and Africans, deconstructing colonial religious categories from within, in order to craft rituals of resistance to their country’s predominantly Catholic and mulatto elites.
Leslie A. Wade, Robin Roberts, and Frank de Caro
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496823786
- eISBN:
- 9781496823823
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496823786.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the surrounding region in 2005, the city debated whether to press on with Mardi Gras or cancel the parades. Ultimately, they decided to proceed. New ...
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After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the surrounding region in 2005, the city debated whether to press on with Mardi Gras or cancel the parades. Ultimately, they decided to proceed. New Orleans’s recovery certainly has resulted from a complex of factors, but the city’s unique cultural life—perhaps its greatest capital—has been instrumental in bringing the city back from the brink of extinction. Voicing a civic fervor, local writer Chris Rose spoke for the importance of Carnival when he argued to carry on with the celebration of Mardi Gras following Katrina: “We are still New Orleans. We are the soul of America. We embody the triumph of the human spirit. Hell. We ARE Mardi Gras”. Since 2006, a number of new Mardi Gras practices have gained prominence. The new parade organizations or krewes, as they are called, interpret and revise the city’s Carnival traditions but bring innovative practices to Mardi Gras. The history of each parade reveals the convergence of race, class, age, and gender dynamics in these new Carnival organizations. Downtown Mardi Gras: New Carnival Practices in Post-Katrina New Orleans examines six unique, offbeat, Downtown celebrations. Using ethnography, folklore, cultural, and performance studies, the authors analyze new Mardi Gras’s connection to traditional Mardi Gras. The narrative of each krewe’s development is fascinating and unique, illustrating participants’ shared desire to contribute to New Orleans’s rich and vibrant culture.Less
After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the surrounding region in 2005, the city debated whether to press on with Mardi Gras or cancel the parades. Ultimately, they decided to proceed. New Orleans’s recovery certainly has resulted from a complex of factors, but the city’s unique cultural life—perhaps its greatest capital—has been instrumental in bringing the city back from the brink of extinction. Voicing a civic fervor, local writer Chris Rose spoke for the importance of Carnival when he argued to carry on with the celebration of Mardi Gras following Katrina: “We are still New Orleans. We are the soul of America. We embody the triumph of the human spirit. Hell. We ARE Mardi Gras”. Since 2006, a number of new Mardi Gras practices have gained prominence. The new parade organizations or krewes, as they are called, interpret and revise the city’s Carnival traditions but bring innovative practices to Mardi Gras. The history of each parade reveals the convergence of race, class, age, and gender dynamics in these new Carnival organizations. Downtown Mardi Gras: New Carnival Practices in Post-Katrina New Orleans examines six unique, offbeat, Downtown celebrations. Using ethnography, folklore, cultural, and performance studies, the authors analyze new Mardi Gras’s connection to traditional Mardi Gras. The narrative of each krewe’s development is fascinating and unique, illustrating participants’ shared desire to contribute to New Orleans’s rich and vibrant culture.
Andrew Gurr
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198129776
- eISBN:
- 9780191671852
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129776.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, Drama
This book explores some of the processes and the playing companies which helped to produce William Shakespeare. The groupings that made the ...
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This book explores some of the processes and the playing companies which helped to produce William Shakespeare. The groupings that made the playing companies into teams usually worked individualistically, in competition with one another. Their individualism, like their professionalism, was driven by the common need for money. They were a peculiar, unique, new phenomenon in London and in the country at large. Even their place in society was anomalous, since they functioned as workers in time of carnival. We already have histories of the theatres that the different companies used, studies of the staging practices, biographies of individual players, and even histories of some individual companies. This book is an attempt at the largest context, a comprehensive history of the companies which generated the London plays and first put them on stage. As in any study of historical process, the principal concern in this book is change and the processes that determined change. It follows the London companies through all the more general transformations and looks at the history of the individual companies.Less
This book explores some of the processes and the playing companies which helped to produce William Shakespeare. The groupings that made the playing companies into teams usually worked individualistically, in competition with one another. Their individualism, like their professionalism, was driven by the common need for money. They were a peculiar, unique, new phenomenon in London and in the country at large. Even their place in society was anomalous, since they functioned as workers in time of carnival. We already have histories of the theatres that the different companies used, studies of the staging practices, biographies of individual players, and even histories of some individual companies. This book is an attempt at the largest context, a comprehensive history of the companies which generated the London plays and first put them on stage. As in any study of historical process, the principal concern in this book is change and the processes that determined change. It follows the London companies through all the more general transformations and looks at the history of the individual companies.
Gwen Terry
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520268463
- eISBN:
- 9780520949782
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520268463.003.0008
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
In this chapter, Clark Terry describes his second encounter with Turk and his gang, following their dissociation after their commitment to the show. It was at this time that he was offered a second ...
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In this chapter, Clark Terry describes his second encounter with Turk and his gang, following their dissociation after their commitment to the show. It was at this time that he was offered a second chance to be associated with Turk and his gang, as part of a small carnival that traveled in several trucks but was at that time stationary in Hattiesburg for a few months. This meant that he would have a place to stay, wash and eat. The money was tight and the carnival was to come to an end soon. All that Clark was left with was the option to travel back to St. Louis in Mr. Suggs' truck. Finally he made it back to St. Louis and was surrounded by businesses, a movie theater, and a church.Less
In this chapter, Clark Terry describes his second encounter with Turk and his gang, following their dissociation after their commitment to the show. It was at this time that he was offered a second chance to be associated with Turk and his gang, as part of a small carnival that traveled in several trucks but was at that time stationary in Hattiesburg for a few months. This meant that he would have a place to stay, wash and eat. The money was tight and the carnival was to come to an end soon. All that Clark was left with was the option to travel back to St. Louis in Mr. Suggs' truck. Finally he made it back to St. Louis and was surrounded by businesses, a movie theater, and a church.
Kristin M. S. Bezio
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781628462388
- eISBN:
- 9781626746831
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462388.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
Kristin M.S. Bezio asks us to enter Arkham Asylum, more or less literally, as players of the eponymous 2009 video game produced by Rocksteady. In her analysis, Bezio carefully outlines how the Joker ...
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Kristin M.S. Bezio asks us to enter Arkham Asylum, more or less literally, as players of the eponymous 2009 video game produced by Rocksteady. In her analysis, Bezio carefully outlines how the Joker acts not only as a villain but also as a guide, a situation that puts the player in the awkward position of following him through the Arkham maze. Engaging Derridean notions of the “nonspecies” and Bakhtin’s analysis of the “carnival,” Bezio argues that Batman: Arkham Asylum opens up in the process a more stimulating – because far less stable – ludic environment, one which ultimately is contained by the Joker’s game-ending decision to meet Batman in combat: “By agreeing to meet Batman on his own terms, the Joker has forsaken the only thing that gave him any power – after all, the Joker’s goal in manipulating Batman is not to destroy Batman, but to force him ‘to see the world as I see it.’”Less
Kristin M.S. Bezio asks us to enter Arkham Asylum, more or less literally, as players of the eponymous 2009 video game produced by Rocksteady. In her analysis, Bezio carefully outlines how the Joker acts not only as a villain but also as a guide, a situation that puts the player in the awkward position of following him through the Arkham maze. Engaging Derridean notions of the “nonspecies” and Bakhtin’s analysis of the “carnival,” Bezio argues that Batman: Arkham Asylum opens up in the process a more stimulating – because far less stable – ludic environment, one which ultimately is contained by the Joker’s game-ending decision to meet Batman in combat: “By agreeing to meet Batman on his own terms, the Joker has forsaken the only thing that gave him any power – after all, the Joker’s goal in manipulating Batman is not to destroy Batman, but to force him ‘to see the world as I see it.’”
Dúnlaith Bird
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644162
- eISBN:
- 9780199949984
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644162.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
Cross-dressing in women’s travel writing of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries can be seen as a carnivalesque affair, featuring bearded ladies and flamboyant Queens. Using the performative gender ...
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Cross-dressing in women’s travel writing of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries can be seen as a carnivalesque affair, featuring bearded ladies and flamboyant Queens. Using the performative gender theories of Judith Butler and Marjorie Garber, this chapter questions the extent to which such theatrical cross-dressing allows European women travel writers to transgress social boundaries in their home and host countries. The first section of this chapter considers Jane Dieulafoy’s painstaking construction of textual legitimacy for her cross-dressing, which both invokes and abjures the legacy of bearded Queens by displacing it along Oriental cultural fault lines. It then examines the tensions that emerge in Isabella Bird’s travelogues as a result of the author’s determination to convincingly perform femininity in the Orient for her British audience. The final section explores Isabelle Eberhardt’s more radical constructions of linguistic and physical gender vagabondage in Algeria and Tunisia, and the restrictive social mechanisms they provoke.Less
Cross-dressing in women’s travel writing of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries can be seen as a carnivalesque affair, featuring bearded ladies and flamboyant Queens. Using the performative gender theories of Judith Butler and Marjorie Garber, this chapter questions the extent to which such theatrical cross-dressing allows European women travel writers to transgress social boundaries in their home and host countries. The first section of this chapter considers Jane Dieulafoy’s painstaking construction of textual legitimacy for her cross-dressing, which both invokes and abjures the legacy of bearded Queens by displacing it along Oriental cultural fault lines. It then examines the tensions that emerge in Isabella Bird’s travelogues as a result of the author’s determination to convincingly perform femininity in the Orient for her British audience. The final section explores Isabelle Eberhardt’s more radical constructions of linguistic and physical gender vagabondage in Algeria and Tunisia, and the restrictive social mechanisms they provoke.
Woody Register
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195167320
- eISBN:
- 9780199849710
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167320.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
A generation before Walt Disney, Fred Thompson was the “boy-wonder” of American popular amusements. At the turn of the 20th century, Thompson's entrepreneurial drive made him into an entertainment ...
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A generation before Walt Disney, Fred Thompson was the “boy-wonder” of American popular amusements. At the turn of the 20th century, Thompson's entrepreneurial drive made him into an entertainment mogul who helped to define the popular culture of his day. This biography tells Thompson's story and examines the transformation of commerce and entertainment as American society moved into an era of mass marketing and large-scale corporate enterprise. Getting his start as a promoter of carnival shows at world's fairs, Thompson was one of the principal developers of Coney Island, where he created the majestic Luna Park. The book traces Thompson's career as he built the mammoth Hippodrome Theater in Manhattan, where he mounted many productions noted for their spectacular—and spectacularly costly—staging effects. It shows how Thompson's fantasies appealed to the growing legions of Americans who found themselves in a world that seemed increasingly “business-like” and profit oriented. The book illustrates how Thompson aggressively marketed to adult consumers a world of make-believe and childlike play, carefully crafting his own public image as “the boy who never grew up”.Less
A generation before Walt Disney, Fred Thompson was the “boy-wonder” of American popular amusements. At the turn of the 20th century, Thompson's entrepreneurial drive made him into an entertainment mogul who helped to define the popular culture of his day. This biography tells Thompson's story and examines the transformation of commerce and entertainment as American society moved into an era of mass marketing and large-scale corporate enterprise. Getting his start as a promoter of carnival shows at world's fairs, Thompson was one of the principal developers of Coney Island, where he created the majestic Luna Park. The book traces Thompson's career as he built the mammoth Hippodrome Theater in Manhattan, where he mounted many productions noted for their spectacular—and spectacularly costly—staging effects. It shows how Thompson's fantasies appealed to the growing legions of Americans who found themselves in a world that seemed increasingly “business-like” and profit oriented. The book illustrates how Thompson aggressively marketed to adult consumers a world of make-believe and childlike play, carefully crafting his own public image as “the boy who never grew up”.
Derek Hughes
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198119746
- eISBN:
- 9780191671203
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198119746.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Drama, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
The early celebrations of restoration, such as John Dryden's poem Astraea Redux, depict the return of justice to a world distracted by anarchy and subverted degree, but the treatment of justice ...
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The early celebrations of restoration, such as John Dryden's poem Astraea Redux, depict the return of justice to a world distracted by anarchy and subverted degree, but the treatment of justice rapidly becomes more critical, as a result both of rapid reassessment of the new regime and of growing interest in those aspects of life that are not socially assimilable. On the one hand, there are encounters between the ministers of justice and the forces of the flesh (carnival, festivity, saturnalia), the balance between authority and licence undergoing several revealing shifts during the period. On the other hand, interest in the perceptual and epistemological isolation of the individual consciousness leads to emphasis on the imprecision and even meaninglessness of legal judgement: on the inevitable mismatch between publicly formulated judicial categories (such as guilt and innocence) and the invisible individual consciousness to which they are applied.Less
The early celebrations of restoration, such as John Dryden's poem Astraea Redux, depict the return of justice to a world distracted by anarchy and subverted degree, but the treatment of justice rapidly becomes more critical, as a result both of rapid reassessment of the new regime and of growing interest in those aspects of life that are not socially assimilable. On the one hand, there are encounters between the ministers of justice and the forces of the flesh (carnival, festivity, saturnalia), the balance between authority and licence undergoing several revealing shifts during the period. On the other hand, interest in the perceptual and epistemological isolation of the individual consciousness leads to emphasis on the imprecision and even meaninglessness of legal judgement: on the inevitable mismatch between publicly formulated judicial categories (such as guilt and innocence) and the invisible individual consciousness to which they are applied.
Woody Register
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195167320
- eISBN:
- 9780199849710
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167320.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Throughout his eleven seasons at Luna Park, the image of Fred Thompson as the fun-loving boy-capitalist on a spree was as much a feature of the park as its exaggerated “Oriental” architecture or the ...
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Throughout his eleven seasons at Luna Park, the image of Fred Thompson as the fun-loving boy-capitalist on a spree was as much a feature of the park as its exaggerated “Oriental” architecture or the Shoot-the-Chutes. Thompson staged his performances to show that Luna Park was built by and for a new kind of man, one who would accept no less than all the fun to which he was entitled. Thompson, then, was largely indistinguishable from the Coney Island resort that he named for the continuously mutating moon: a radiant reflection of energy, never the same or in the same place from one moment to the next, the very representation of capricious and insatiable desire. Above all, he said, his park meant unceasing variety and change, “movement, movement, movement everywhere.” What was true of Luna Park would be true of Thompson; he was what he sold.Less
Throughout his eleven seasons at Luna Park, the image of Fred Thompson as the fun-loving boy-capitalist on a spree was as much a feature of the park as its exaggerated “Oriental” architecture or the Shoot-the-Chutes. Thompson staged his performances to show that Luna Park was built by and for a new kind of man, one who would accept no less than all the fun to which he was entitled. Thompson, then, was largely indistinguishable from the Coney Island resort that he named for the continuously mutating moon: a radiant reflection of energy, never the same or in the same place from one moment to the next, the very representation of capricious and insatiable desire. Above all, he said, his park meant unceasing variety and change, “movement, movement, movement everywhere.” What was true of Luna Park would be true of Thompson; he was what he sold.
James H. Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267718
- eISBN:
- 9780520948624
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267718.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses carnivalesque and carnival tales. For many theorists and writers, the Venetian carnival represented many seasons in Venice society. For the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin, the ...
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This chapter discusses carnivalesque and carnival tales. For many theorists and writers, the Venetian carnival represented many seasons in Venice society. For the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin, the carnival was a glimpse of authentic human freedom, a utopia still recoverable whenever carnival laughter united the powerful in mockery and defiance. Others such as Frazer saw the carnival as a monument of fruitless ingenuity, of waster labor, and of blighted hopes. Carnivalesque denoted humor that deflated pretense, embraced community, and celebrated life in its highest and lowest impulses. For Bakhtin laughter gave power to the powerless and challenged impregnable institutions. Masks served to convey that ranks were arbitrary and status was only skin deep. Masks also deviated the wearers from conformity and blurred the line between reality and make-believe. To consider the moments of the Venetian carnival is to be reminded of the sheer variety of the seasons. The carnival may be spontaneous or scripted, harmless or explosive, disruptively seditious or decorously ferocious. The carnival may stay within the limits or violate them, and its transgressions may be authorized or not. It may be used by the powerless to challenge the authority or by authorities to divide the populace. And it may offer an occasion to deny roots or to affirm one’s roots.Less
This chapter discusses carnivalesque and carnival tales. For many theorists and writers, the Venetian carnival represented many seasons in Venice society. For the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin, the carnival was a glimpse of authentic human freedom, a utopia still recoverable whenever carnival laughter united the powerful in mockery and defiance. Others such as Frazer saw the carnival as a monument of fruitless ingenuity, of waster labor, and of blighted hopes. Carnivalesque denoted humor that deflated pretense, embraced community, and celebrated life in its highest and lowest impulses. For Bakhtin laughter gave power to the powerless and challenged impregnable institutions. Masks served to convey that ranks were arbitrary and status was only skin deep. Masks also deviated the wearers from conformity and blurred the line between reality and make-believe. To consider the moments of the Venetian carnival is to be reminded of the sheer variety of the seasons. The carnival may be spontaneous or scripted, harmless or explosive, disruptively seditious or decorously ferocious. The carnival may stay within the limits or violate them, and its transgressions may be authorized or not. It may be used by the powerless to challenge the authority or by authorities to divide the populace. And it may offer an occasion to deny roots or to affirm one’s roots.
Geoff Pearson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780719087219
- eISBN:
- 9781781706145
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719087219.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
This is an ethnographic account of English football fans who travel home and away with their team, based upon sixteen years’ participant observation. The author identifies a distinct sub-culture of ...
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This is an ethnographic account of English football fans who travel home and away with their team, based upon sixteen years’ participant observation. The author identifies a distinct sub-culture of supporter – the ‘carnival fan’ – who dominated the travelling support of the three clubs observed - Manchester United, Blackpool and the England national team. This accessible account follows these groups home and abroad, describing their interpretations, motivations and behaviour and challenging a number of the myths about ‘hooliganism’ and crowd control. An Ethnography of English Football Fans identifies the primary motivation of these fan groups to be the creation of a carnival – a period of transgression from the norms of everyday life based upon congregating in groups, alcohol consumption, humour and tomfoolery, and expressions of identity. In achieving these aims, the fan groups were frequently brought into conflict with the football authorities, police and ‘hooligan’ groups and this account includes explanations of some of the most serious instances of crowd disorder involving English fans in the last two decades. The book also looks at issues such as attitudes to gender, sexuality and race, and the impact of technology upon football fandom.Less
This is an ethnographic account of English football fans who travel home and away with their team, based upon sixteen years’ participant observation. The author identifies a distinct sub-culture of supporter – the ‘carnival fan’ – who dominated the travelling support of the three clubs observed - Manchester United, Blackpool and the England national team. This accessible account follows these groups home and abroad, describing their interpretations, motivations and behaviour and challenging a number of the myths about ‘hooliganism’ and crowd control. An Ethnography of English Football Fans identifies the primary motivation of these fan groups to be the creation of a carnival – a period of transgression from the norms of everyday life based upon congregating in groups, alcohol consumption, humour and tomfoolery, and expressions of identity. In achieving these aims, the fan groups were frequently brought into conflict with the football authorities, police and ‘hooligan’ groups and this account includes explanations of some of the most serious instances of crowd disorder involving English fans in the last two decades. The book also looks at issues such as attitudes to gender, sexuality and race, and the impact of technology upon football fandom.
Dolores Flores-Silva
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496814531
- eISBN:
- 9781496814579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496814531.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
This chapter addresses Latin American contexts for reading and teaching Welty's fiction. Beginning with traces of Spanish Natchez and territories of New Spain in Welty, this chapter moves to engage ...
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This chapter addresses Latin American contexts for reading and teaching Welty's fiction. Beginning with traces of Spanish Natchez and territories of New Spain in Welty, this chapter moves to engage aspects of magical realism, carnival ethos, and consciousness ofla frontera (the border) in Welty's early work. Readers may come to see that Welty can be read well in alignment with several different Latina or Chicana writers.Less
This chapter addresses Latin American contexts for reading and teaching Welty's fiction. Beginning with traces of Spanish Natchez and territories of New Spain in Welty, this chapter moves to engage aspects of magical realism, carnival ethos, and consciousness ofla frontera (the border) in Welty's early work. Readers may come to see that Welty can be read well in alignment with several different Latina or Chicana writers.
Megan Holt
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496817396
- eISBN:
- 9781496817440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496817396.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Megan Holt interviews Merline Kimble, founder of the current incarnation of the Gold Digger Baby Dolls. The name of the group pays homage to the original Gold Digger group, founded by Kimble’s ...
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Megan Holt interviews Merline Kimble, founder of the current incarnation of the Gold Digger Baby Dolls. The name of the group pays homage to the original Gold Digger group, founded by Kimble’s grandparents and disbanded during World War II. Kimble discusses her family’s place within the Baby Doll tradition and the resurgence of interest in that tradition in recent years. Kimble acknowledges the link between masking and freedom, stressing that a sense of freedom is particularly important for the women who participate in Baby Doll culture. She notes that baby dolls are not defined by age or gender--men and women, children and elders, all have a place in the masking tradition, a tradition she hopes will live on through the next generation.Less
Megan Holt interviews Merline Kimble, founder of the current incarnation of the Gold Digger Baby Dolls. The name of the group pays homage to the original Gold Digger group, founded by Kimble’s grandparents and disbanded during World War II. Kimble discusses her family’s place within the Baby Doll tradition and the resurgence of interest in that tradition in recent years. Kimble acknowledges the link between masking and freedom, stressing that a sense of freedom is particularly important for the women who participate in Baby Doll culture. She notes that baby dolls are not defined by age or gender--men and women, children and elders, all have a place in the masking tradition, a tradition she hopes will live on through the next generation.
James H. Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267718
- eISBN:
- 9780520948624
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267718.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The carnival season in Venice began unofficially on December 26, when the theaters reopened after a ten-day break for Christmas. This day signaled an influx of tourists, whose numbers grew during the ...
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The carnival season in Venice began unofficially on December 26, when the theaters reopened after a ten-day break for Christmas. This day signaled an influx of tourists, whose numbers grew during the following two months. The government decreed the official beginning of each carnival season, which varied from year to year. During this period, carnival turned Venice into a stage and turned everyone into a performer. This chapter narrates the story of the Venice carnival. It particularly focused on the violence, the high hilarity, and the solemn ceremony that characterized the Venice carnival. The Venetian carnival was a time outside of time. It was a time when common mores and morals were suspended and identities put in flux. For connoisseurs, the Venetian carnival was a time when the society’s artificial rules gave way to the truths of nature. For the disapproving, it furnished a ready narrative for the Republic’s decline and fall: moral decay weakened foundations and the state would eventually collapse. And for those seeking political meaning in acts of transgression, the carnival granted ample evidence for equality in the moment of disguise.Less
The carnival season in Venice began unofficially on December 26, when the theaters reopened after a ten-day break for Christmas. This day signaled an influx of tourists, whose numbers grew during the following two months. The government decreed the official beginning of each carnival season, which varied from year to year. During this period, carnival turned Venice into a stage and turned everyone into a performer. This chapter narrates the story of the Venice carnival. It particularly focused on the violence, the high hilarity, and the solemn ceremony that characterized the Venice carnival. The Venetian carnival was a time outside of time. It was a time when common mores and morals were suspended and identities put in flux. For connoisseurs, the Venetian carnival was a time when the society’s artificial rules gave way to the truths of nature. For the disapproving, it furnished a ready narrative for the Republic’s decline and fall: moral decay weakened foundations and the state would eventually collapse. And for those seeking political meaning in acts of transgression, the carnival granted ample evidence for equality in the moment of disguise.
James H. Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520267718
- eISBN:
- 9780520948624
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520267718.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter discusses prevailing sentiments and ideas about the Venetian carnival and the masks. For some, the Venetian carnival was“the other side of life, the counterpart of social segregation and ...
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This chapter discusses prevailing sentiments and ideas about the Venetian carnival and the masks. For some, the Venetian carnival was“the other side of life, the counterpart of social segregation and political repression”. This interpretation of the carnival was widespread. The mask’s anonymity was a ticket to liberation. It conferred on its wearers a power to be anyone they wished, a cover to speak the truth, flaunt the convention, and throw off hierarchy. In a society where social structure was immutable, freedoms were limited, and punishment was harsh for anyone who questioned the system, the masks acted as salutary unsettler, equalizing, challenging, and permitting the forbidden. The carnival was a joyous celebration which erased differences, exposed ideologies, and cleared the way for human connections stripped of hierarchy. Masks revealed a universal impulse for equality. However, the carnival was a willed distraction from dire economic and political crises. The carnival provided a glimpse to the serious issues on social structure and selfhood; on politics and dissent; on destruction and renewal; on hierarchy, democracy, and equality; and on the collapse of the thousand-year Republic.Less
This chapter discusses prevailing sentiments and ideas about the Venetian carnival and the masks. For some, the Venetian carnival was“the other side of life, the counterpart of social segregation and political repression”. This interpretation of the carnival was widespread. The mask’s anonymity was a ticket to liberation. It conferred on its wearers a power to be anyone they wished, a cover to speak the truth, flaunt the convention, and throw off hierarchy. In a society where social structure was immutable, freedoms were limited, and punishment was harsh for anyone who questioned the system, the masks acted as salutary unsettler, equalizing, challenging, and permitting the forbidden. The carnival was a joyous celebration which erased differences, exposed ideologies, and cleared the way for human connections stripped of hierarchy. Masks revealed a universal impulse for equality. However, the carnival was a willed distraction from dire economic and political crises. The carnival provided a glimpse to the serious issues on social structure and selfhood; on politics and dissent; on destruction and renewal; on hierarchy, democracy, and equality; and on the collapse of the thousand-year Republic.
