Abstract
This chapter examines Malta’s position within the British Empire, and the political and cultural effects of subordination to the exigencies of a power that stretched across the globe. It introduces the book’s focus: the exploitation of Carnival’s theatrical qualities in the power games that the Maltese played against the British to question or resist imperial dictates; and the ways Maltese rival political interests appropriated the playful, theatrical, participatory aspects of the Maltese Carnival in seeking to control or influence local power. It announces the transnational connections that will be made in exploiting these themes.
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- 1.
Le Roy Ladurie explains the lack of Carnival celebration by Protestants in early modern Europe in this way: ‘The Protestants abolished Lenten fasting and were thus obliged to get rid of the preliminary feasting as well. As early as the sixteenth century they were making a spirited attempt at destroying all traces of Carnival’ (1979, 308). Crichlow and Armstrong define Carnival as a ‘Catholic festival’ which ‘has not traditionally existed in Anglophone societies’ (2012, 2).
- 2.
For a long time, the Colonial Office classified Malta in the direction of Africa or the Middle East. However, the issue of whether the Maltese were European or African was not only limited to British times. See Freller 1998, 40–8.
- 3.
Le Roy Ladurie (1979) offers an excellent concrete example of this in his description of the revolts during Carnival at Romans in 1579–1580 where political imposition, under the form of taxes, was questioned, thereby placing at risk the prevailing political structures of hierarchy and privilege. Violent suppression of the revolt ensured reinforcement of the status quo.
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Cremona, V.A. (2018). Perceptions of Colony and Carnival. In: Carnival and Power. Transnational Theatre Histories. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70656-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70656-6_1
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