CARNIVAL, A TERRITORY OF CRISIS: THE FORCES INVOLVED IN THE "BEGGAR CHRIST" AFFAIR (BEIJA-FLOR, 1989)

Abstract

The political debates intertwine with the carnival research in the areas of sociology, anthropology and art theory, from European history to Brazilian one, and from the Renaissance to contemporary cultures, invading the Roman Saturnalia as much as the current "sambadromes". The presence of critical academic studies in various subjects such as Rabelais, communitas and the samba schools of Rio de Janeiro shows that the political issues distribute the periods of crisis in carnival while that, paradoxically, seems to gain strength from them. This paper draws a brief background of the carnival critics and analyzes politic issues of a work of art in which opposing forces face each other in the carnival samba school competition in Rio de Janeiro: the "Beggar Christ" (Beija-Flor, 1989).