Masquerade politics : explorations in the structure of urban cultural movements / Abner Cohen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cohen, Abner.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Carnival--Political aspects--England--London.

Carnival.

Carnival--Political aspects.

Festivals--Political aspects.

Festivals.

West Indians.

England--London.

West Indians--England--London.

Notting Hill (London, England).

Physical Description:

x, 166 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [1993]

Summary:

Carnival, that image of sensuous frivolity, is shown by Abner Cohen to be a masquerade for the dynamic relations between culture and politics. His masterful study details the transformation of a local, polyethnic London fair to a massive, exclusively West Indian carnival, known as "Europe's biggest street festival," which in 1976 occasioned a bloody confrontation between black youth and the police and which has since become a fiercely contested cultural event.

Cohen contrasts the development of the London carnival with the development of other carnivalesque movements, including the Renaissance Pleasure Faire of California. His valuable analysis of these relatively little-explored urban cultural movements advances further the theoretical formulations developed in his previous studies.

Contents:

1 Resurrected London Fair 10

2 Corporate Organisation and the Trinidad Conventions 21

3 Youth Rebellion and the Jamaican Connection 33

4 The Carnival is Contested 45

5 The Carnival is Contained 62

6 Communal Organisation 79

7 The Political Dimension of Art and Music 92

8 The Leadership Process 106

9 The Politics of Joking Relationships 120

10 The Aestheticisation of Politics 133.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 156-161) and index.

ISBN:

0520078381

OCLC:

26304703