CARNAVAL IN THE 1940s: THE MANY FANTASIES OF A REVELER RIO DE JANEIRO

Abstract

This article traces a brief history of carnaval demonstrations in the city of Rio de Janeiro in the 1940s, observing how these manifestations responded to historical events such as World War II and the period of government called Estado Novo (1937-1945). The consolidation of the carnaval party as a symbol of this city is marked not only by the self-assertion of its newest and indomitable revelers’ manifestation – the samba schools parade – but also by the government’s initiative to organize, in a systematic way, the ornamentation of the city’s main ​​streets. The strategy would follow the already established model of decorations of ball halls, giving the party a new dimension in which the city undergoes a gigantic scenographic metamorphose, whose trajectory collaborates to the very spectacle of Rio’s Carnival.