Carnival and Culture – Sex, Symbol and Status in Spain - Hardcover

Gilmore, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300074808 ISBN 13: 9780300074802

Publisher: Yale University Press, 1999

Synopsis

Each year in the weeks preceding the deprivations of Lent, the Andalusian region of southern Spain erupts into madcap depravity, during a February carnival of riotous celebration. Carnival features subversive songs, burlesques and skits, transvestite parades, and public persecution of communal offenders, along with mournful elegies and heartfelt panegyrics. In this lively book, anthropologist David D. Gilmore, while exploring the meanings of Andalusian carnival, focuses particular attention on the songs, or coplas. He offers translations of many of these carnival productions and mines the rich vein of oral literature for a new understanding of the ways in which the Andalusian people interpret and negotiate their world.

About this title

Synopsis:

An exploration of the meanings of the Andalusian carnival, focusing in particular on the songs, or coplas. The author offers translations of many of these carnival productions, and contends that they are less about revolution or politics, than about the ambivalence of all human feeling.

About the Author:

David D. Gilmore is professor of anthropology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0300074808
• ISBN 13: 9780300074802
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 252