Carnivalesque Protest and the Humorless State

Abstract

Despite the long and generally humorless history of statecraft, institutional forms of oppression have periodically been defeated, transformed, or at least temporarily checked by carnivalesque forms of public protest. After reviewing the political features of carnival and the carnivalesque, along with several historical and contemporary examples of carnivalesque political performances, this essay explores the possibilities for progressive public transgression and the interrelationships among carnivalesque protest, critical democratic citizenship, and state health.