TITLE:
The New Orleans Carnival as a Theater Space: A Patrimonial Landscape in the Understanding of Translatinity
AUTHORS:
Christian Dennys Monteiro de Oliveira
KEYWORDS:
Carnival, Theater Space, Latinity, Patrimonial Landscape
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.7 No.2,
February
2,
2019
ABSTRACT: The present study represents an attempt to read the patrimonial landscape composed by the sacred-profane festivities of the New Orleans Carnival, known as Mardi Gras. It uses a methodology of comparative observation and qualitative analytical procedures to link the theatricality of the city to the performance of Afro-descended groups (the “Indians”), the aesthetics of their self-presentation and their engagement in cultural resistance. To do so, the study projects inequalities and cultural shocks with reference to the play A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams. The main purpose is to elaborate a concept of a theater space where it is possible to develop modes of interpretation of the Latin American culture, that is, a “translatinity” a political and social overflow of African and Amerindian values, especially from the second half of the 20th century, in the culturally polarized cities of the American continent.