While the word ‘Carnival’ sparks many vivid ideas of brightly colored costumes, lively samba dancers, and sprightly music, its origins reside in Medieval Europe in the Catholic Church. Carnival, being one week before Lenten, was seen as an opportunity to partake in pleasures of the table, flesh, and soul. However, under the masks, a more sinister undertone lurked. Professor Ehrstine presented the contradictive theories regarding the purpose of Carnival. This idea of contradiction is what piqued my interest—how the celebration can be a rejection of the status quo or a strategy reinforces it.
There are several ideas regarding the underlying societal purpose that Carnival served. Mikhail Bakhtin, a Russian philosopher, suggested that Carnival
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Assuming a new identity was a considerable part of the Carnival festivities. Inversions of social hierarchies in both the pagan and religious realms endured throughout carnival. For example, noblemen and peasants, kings and fools, drunks and bishops, all were allowed to trade places. In a similar manner, the gender hierarchy was also at the mercy of Carnival. Cross-dressing was a very common tradition during Carnival; however, men did not have to fear the same degree of punishment that women did. In fact, there were many contradictions regarding women subverting the gender norms. While Carnival provided a stage for women to rebel against the present hierarchy, many traditions of carnival were used to enforce the it without fear of consequences. Professor Ehrstine mentioned that in Renaissance Venice, the mask that a woman was allowed to wear was dependent on her marital status. A harsher tradition was when group of men would publicly shame a woman through a crude song due to her marriage not confining to social norms. The upheaval of societal hierarchies was apparent in the artwork at the time. For instance, the woodcut showing the “Topsy-Turvy World” in Professor Ehrstine’s Powerpoint depicted a hectic scene in which many things were not quite right. For example, the church is turned upside down and a clerical figure appears to be working in the fields. The traditions and depictions of such provide evidence for both Bakhtin’s theory and the safety valve