Carnevale Annual Symposium

The annual Spring mini-symposium intends to engage humanities scholars, both students and faculty, in an interdisciplinary study of some aspect of  “Carnival.” With its roots in antiquity and its many manifestations still vital in an increasingly secular and globalized society, Lent and the revelry which preceds it present scholars with innumerable opportunities to explore human thought and spirituality.

Each year participants consider the origins and evolution of springtime feast, fast, or movement,  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 cultures (Venetian Carnival, Mardi Gras, Carnival in Rio etc.),  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. As befits the subject, moreover, since 2005 the symposium has belonged as much to the city of Gainesville as to the University, with events and associated exhibits held at the Thomas Center, and participation by local collectors and scholars.

--Mary Watt

Carnevale conferences

2008:  Game Day! From Medieval Times to Modern Age

2007:  Soldiers, Saints and Scaramouche: The Iconography of the Sword

 2006: The Mask: Tradition and Transformation: A Colloquium

2005:  Carnevale ~ Media-evale  Oyez, Oyez, Oyez! Missives and Messages: Media in the Middle Ages

2004: CARNEVALE, KARNEVAL!  Processions, Parades and Propaganda

2003: In the Wake of Carnevale:  Ritual Wandering as a Prelude to Paradise

2002: The Other Side of Carnival:  Lean Times, Fast Times, and Holy Anorexia

2001:  CARNEVALE, CARNIVAL!

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