Spanish Carnival, Dictatorship, and Political Correctness

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Key words
carnival, “holiday of disobedience”, bans, political correctness.
Author
Alexandr N. Kozhanovskii
About the Author
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1699-3660
E-mail: ankozhan49@yandex.ru Tel.: +7 (499) 954-93-43
32а, Leninskii ave., 119334, Moscow, Russian Federation
DSc, Leading Researcher, Center for European Studies, N. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences
Received
Date of publication
DOI
https://doi.org/10.26158/TK.2021.22.3.008
Acknowledgements

The article is written in accordance with the plan of research works of the N. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Body

This article examines the evolution of Spanish national carnival in the context of Spanish history of the past two centuries as the embodiment of the “protest principle,” as a “holiday of disobedience,” when the usual social order is turned upside down, everyday rules of behavior are rejected, and established moral and ideological norms are abolished. Pressure on the carnival tradition on the part of the authorities, sometimes very severe, generated an almost continuous struggle to maintain it. During the Franco dictatorship, carnival was banned and attempts were made to construct a replacement, devoid of the original critical and “subversive” spirit. This article describes the restoration of the carnival tradition after the dictatorship fell. It analyzes the reaction of Spanish society and administration to the renewed “taboo violations” in the context of liberal freedoms. The author draws attention to a fundamentally new trend in the Spanish cultural and ideological atmosphere of recent years associated with a sharp increase in so-called political correctness and with attempts by an influential part of society to rebuild a new system of values. In this situation, the carnival, which for centuries played the role of disturber of public peace, for the first time in history is being criticized as a bastion of conservatism, sexism, machismo, etc., that requires radical restructuring. However, the implementation of such change will inevitably destroy the unique nature of the carnival which miraculously survived centuries of restrictions, prohibitions, “commercial corrosion” and other factors detrimental to the maintenance of the tradition.

References

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For citation

Kozhanovskii A. N. Spanish Carnival, Dictatorship, and Political Correctness. Traditional Culture. 2021. Vol. 22. No. 3. Pp. 94–109. In Russian.