'Academics and artists have been talking about carnival-the-concept for about a century now, and still finding fresh things to say. In very broad terms, the concept can be understood as bifurcated between two opposing logics. The first, somewhat nostalgically, celebrates carnival as a space of freedom, and of opposition to the established relations of power (e.g. Bakhtin 1984a). The second, somewhat unsentimentally, identifies carnival as a means for authority to mask, and thereby maintain, the status quo (e.g. Turner 1969).' (Introduction)
'Academics and artists have been talking about carnival-the-concept for about a century now, and still finding fresh things to say. In very broad terms, the concept can be understood as bifurcated between two opposing logics. The first, somewhat nostalgically, celebrates carnival as a space of freedom, and of opposition to the established relations of power (e.g. Bakhtin 1984a). The second, somewhat unsentimentally, identifies carnival as a means for authority to mask, and thereby maintain, the status quo (e.g. Turner 1969).' (Introduction)