Autore
Godet, Aurélie

Titolo
Riding Out the Storms. Carnival and Crisis in New Orleans (1870s-2020s)
Periodico
Memoria e ricerca
Anno: 2025 - Volume: 80 - Fascicolo: 3 - Pagina iniziale: 417 - Pagina finale: 437

Since the 1870s, when the «krewe system» emerged, Mardi Gras in New Orleans has consistently reflected local, national, and global crises – whether wars, epidemics, or economic downturns. At the same time, Carnival has often been portrayed as a remedy to such upheavals, offering either a joyful distraction or a renewed sense of community. This article draws on testimonies gathered in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (2005), during the Confederate monuments controversy (2018), amid the Covid-19 pandemic (2020), and following a recent terrorist attack (2024) to illustrate the persistence of this therapeutic narrative. Yet, challenging this seemingly harmonious image, it also underscores how Carnival has, at times, intensified rather than alleviated New Orleans’s economic, social, and environmental struggles. Additionally, it shows that Carnival itself has endured a series of internal crises that have made it a key site of «creative destruction». I conclude by reflecting more broadly on the complex relationship between festival and turmoil through the notion of «category crisis».



SICI: 1127-0195(2025)80:3<417:ROTSCA>2.0.ZU;2-O
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.14647/118658
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.14647/118658

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