Carnevale, Carnival!  February 27-March 2, 2001

Tuesday, February 27 (Mardi Gras)
8:00 - 9:30 am
Shrove/Pancake Tuesday - An English/Canadian Tradition
Pancake Breakfast
Racquet Club

Wednesday, February 28
9:30 - 10:30 am
Panel Discussion
"Carnival Today:  Cultural Disparities and Similarities"
Moderator:  Professor M. Vasquez
Panel Members:  Dr. E. Ginway, Dr. S. Blum, Dr. M. Paden, Professor W. Hasty, D. Martin
219 Dauer Hall

12:00 NOON
Ash Wednesday Mass
St. Augustine’s University Parish Church
1738 W. University Avenue

7:00 pm
Screening
Federico Fellini’s “I Vitelloni”
 Introduction by Luca Caminati, University of Florida:  "Revelatory Aspects of Carnevale"
Florida Gym 280

Thursday, March 1
10:00 am
Lecture
Professor Konrad Eisenbichler, University of Toronto:
"Saving the Young from Temptation: Carnival-time Plays in Renaissance Florence."
Introduction by Dr. Mary Watt
219 Dauer Hall

3:00 pm
Lecture
Professor Louise Vasvari, SUNY Stony Brook:
“Gastro-Genital Rites of Reversal; the Battle of Flesh and Lent and Medieval Popular Culture"
Introduction by Professor W. Calin
Dean's Conference Room, Turlington Hall
4:45 pm
Musical Recital
Erica Mundy 
"Selections from Rossini to celebrate the Venetian Carnevale"
Keene Faculty Center

Friday, March 2
9:30 a.m.
Lecture
Professor Elizabeth McAlister, Wesleyan University:
“Burning Judas In Haiti: The Legacy of Medieval Anti-Judaism in the Caribbean”
Introduction by Dr. Shifra Armon
219 Dauer Hall

Why Carnival?

This mini-symposium intends to engage humanities scholars, both students and faculty, in an interdisciplinary study of the phenomenon of “Carnival.” With its roots in antiquity and its many manifestations still vital in an increasingly secular and globalized society, pre-lenten revelry presents scholars with innumerable opportunities to explore such non-material qualities as human thought and spirituality.

This mini-symposium focuses on exploring the origins and evolution of Carnival as well as its continuing role in today’s world. The pre-lenten merry-making of Christian tradition has long been associated with a period of pronounced theatricality, marked especially by the wearing of masks and the comic reversal of societal norms. Thus a study of Carnival necessarily requires not only an examination of the underlying religious faith and traditions that engendered the festival, but also an examination of the norms that the festival seeks to reverse, together with the myriad aspects of the realization of such reversal, especially the plastic and the performing arts (music and theater).

While the Carnival phenomenon is inextricably tied to Romance Languages (Venetian Carnival, Mardi Gras, Carnival in Rio etc.) “Carnevale, Carnival,” its study necessarily raises issues of religion, sociology, music, theater arts, philosophy and anthropology. Accordingly, the study of Carnival, as envisioned by this mini-symposium stands as the embodiment of the interdisciplinary essence of Humanities.

--Mary Watt

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