Carnival and Power
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"Vicki Ann Cremona's study examines a familiar topic, the subversive performative possibilities of Carnival, from an unfamiliar and fascinating perspective, the operations of Carnival and street performance in Malta since the nineteenth century. Such key contemporary concerns as national identity, class struggles, and modern power politics as they are explored in public performance are presented in illuminating new perspectives against as background which is both inside and outside the conventional European sphere." (Marvin Carlson, Sidney E. Cohn Distinguished Professor of Theatre, Comparative Literature and Middle Eastern Studies, City University of New York, USA)"As a citizen of Malta, Vicki Ann Cremona has an insider's perspective on the social and political conditions of the annual performances of Carnival. She has written a major study on the social conditions and satiric aims of Carnival performances. She offers an insightful and astute analysis of thepolitical implications of street performances, costumes, and the public and private balls. Her historical perspective focuses on the negotiation of power through play, particularly in the years before Independence when Malta was a British colony, and traces the link with modern times." (Thomas Postlewait, University of Washington, Seattle, USA)
"Play is emerging as an important trope of contemporary society but there have been few rigorously argued investigations of how contemporary forms have emerged. Vicki Ann Cremona's historical examination of Carnival in Malta fills an important gap in this field. She traces current celebrations back to colonial contexts, in which theatricality, spectacle and performance during Carnival played important roles in the negotiation of power. This book is a persuasively argued story of resistance, celebration and fun, exploring how a taken for granted tradition has worked as a changing cultural form and documenting the implications of bringing together history and current Carnival practice." (Christopher Perkins, University of Manchester, UK)
"Professor Vicki Ann Cremona's ground-breaking book is indispensable towards understanding the correlation between power politics and Carnival, a key element of Malta's social entertainment calendar, and its development into a means of not always submerged confrontation between the colonized and the colonizer, as well as a useful partisan political tool." (Joseph Pirotta, University of Malta, Malta)
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