Afro-Latin Carnival and the Carnivalesque in the African American Novel

Abstract

This article examines the overlap of conceptions of blackness and the carnivalesque in a pan-American context, from the popular praxis of Brazil, where carnival stands as a performative narrative of popular identity, to prominent works in African-American literature featuring abstract notions of the carnivalesque. Seminal theories of carnival and their relation to performance theory and the revitalization of festivals in the West are briefly outlined. The second section describes a patriarchal discourse of Latin identity in Ibero-America, the prominence of Afro-Latin American performance, and their paradoxical synthesis. The third section takes up ethical and aesthetic issues in African American letters as they relate to the carnivalesque, from Du Bois’ explication of double-consciousness to the work of Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison. This is contrasted with the role of Afro-Brazilian identity and the carnivalesque in Brazilian letters with particular attention to Jorge Amado. A critique of Caribbean carnival by Derek Walcott is presented as a middle term. The conclusion synthesizes the distinct premises of Afro-Latin and African American perspectives on carnivalesque resistance.

Keywords:

• Carnival
• carnivalesque
• latinidad
• African-American literature

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Notes

Notes

[1] See Our Literal Speed (2010, p. 387), a review of the 2009 book The Coming Insurrection, authored by ‘the Invisible Committee’.

[2] For an example, see Batson and Riggio (2004, p. 33) on Trinidad and Tobago.

[3] See Soihet (1999, pp. 24 and 72) and Queiroz (1992, pp. 29, 55 and 165) on the original Portuguese influence, both in the top-down sense and the bottom-up sensess of ludic profanity, the evolution from Portuguese entrudo to Brazilian carnival, and the increasing Afro-Brazilian appropriation of the performative substance of carnival; see also Soihet (1999, p. 120) for a nuanced contestation of Queiroz’ reading of the evolution of specific class and ethnic components in carnival.

[4] See Pinho (2008, p. 72) on Brazil; see Knaue (2011, p. 3) on Cuba.

[5] With regard to Colombia, for example, see Wade (1993, pp. 24–28).

[6] See, for example, Fraser Delgado and Muñoz (1997, pp. 22–31).

[7] For concrete examples relating to carnival, see Agier (2000, pp. 48–53) on Bahia; Green (1999, pp. 202–205) on Rio; Ho (2000, pp. 4–5) on Trinidad; Burton (1997, p. 162) provides an ‘Afro-creole’ synthesis. On everyday culture, see, for example, Wade (1993, pp. 245–252) on Colombia, Da Matta (1991, pp. 63–65 and 129–134) on Brazil; and Wilson (1973, p. 95) on the Anglophone Caribbean.

[8] Sankeralli (2004, p. 80) describes the Indian community as one of three main ‘tribes’ contributing to carnival, together with ‘neo-Europeans’ and Afro-descended Trinidadians; see Chang (2004, pp. 89–90) on ethnic Chinese participation.

[9] On Latin America generally, see Whitten and Torres (1998, pp. 3–4); on Colombia, see Wade (1993, pp. 85–88); on Brazil, see Sansone (2003, pp. 10–16 and 21–24); and on the Anglophone Caribbean, see Thomas (2004, pp. 11–15).

[10] For instance, see Vasconcelos (1997, pp. 10 and 16) on the mestizo Latin ‘ethnic mission’; Rodó (1922, p. 4) on the North American ‘Caliban’ and Latin American ‘Ariel’ dichotomy; and Ortiz (1947, p. 102) on Cuban ‘transculturation’ versus North American ‘acculturation’.