Carnival and Other Christian Festivals: Folk Theology and Folk Performance (Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture) [Hardcover]

Max Harris (Author)

Book Description

Series: Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture | Publication Date: December 1, 2003

With a riotous mix of saints and devils, street theater and dancing, and music and fireworks, Christian festivals are some of the most lively and colorful spectacles that occur in Spain and its former European and American possessions. That these folk celebrations, with roots reaching back to medieval times, remain vibrant in the high-tech culture of the twenty-first century strongly suggests that they also provide an indispensable vehicle for expressing hopes, fears, and desires that people can articulate in no other way. In this book, Max Harris explores and develops principles for understanding the folk theology underlying patronal saints' day festivals, feasts of Corpus Christi, and Carnivals through a series of vivid, first-hand accounts of these festivities throughout Spain and in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Peru, Trinidad, Bolivia, and Belgium. Paying close attention to the signs encoded in folk performances, he finds in these festivals a folk theology of social justice that - however obscured by official rhetoric, by distracting theories of archaic origin, or by the performers' own need to mask their resistance to authority - is often in articulate and complex dialogue with the power structures that surround it. This discovery sheds important new light on the meanings of religious festivals celebrated from Belgium to Peru and on the sophisticated theatrical performances they embody.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dr. Harris has preempted a field almost unto himself: the study of contemporary festivals that have their origins in tradition, history, and the great religious celebrations of the past... [This book] represents a masterful achievement." --Milla Cozart Riggio, James J. Goodwin Professor of English, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut

Review

Dr. Harris has preempted a field almost unto himself: the study of contemporary festivals that have their origins in tradition, history, and the great religious celebrations of the past. . . . [This book] represents a masterful achievement. (Milla Cozart Riggio, James J. Goodwin Professor of English, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; 1 edition (December 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292705522
• ISBN-13: 978-0292705524
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,619,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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