Performing Urbanity Through Carnival on the Streets of Rio de Janeiro: Practical Approaches for Reducing Stigmatization of the “Mad” in Cities

Abstract

This chapter explores how the project Loucura Suburbana (Suburban Madness), located in a psychiatric complex in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, uses carnival to challenge fixed notions of space and identity to reduce stigmatization of the “mad.” It draws together archive and field research and places the findings for the first time within emerging theories of urbanity, defined here as the process by which third-hand stereotypes of what someone will be like based on assumptions alone are replaced with first-hand knowledge of what someone is like based on shared experience.

The main finding is that Loucura Suburbana challenges fixed notions of space by blurring the boundaries between two spaces society has conventionally kept apart: asylum and street. It does this by taking the asylum to the streets, in the form of public carnival parades, and bringing the streets into the asylum by hosting workshops and practice sessions that lead up to carnival. Blurring these boundaries provides opportunities for people to meet who would otherwise be kept apart. In the process, fixed notions of identity based on overly simplistic binaries of “mad versus normal” are also challenged.

The results have been life changing for the project’s participants. For patient-participants, the constant ebb and flow between asylum and street is the first step to becoming deinstitutionalized and valued members of the community. For other-participants, preconceptions and medical paradigms are challenged, allowing them to grow individually and professionally.

A core conclusion is that fixed notions of space and identity push large sections of people to the margins of society. But utilized to their full extent, public streets and institutions can challenge these stigmatizing discourses, enabling the excluded to rebuild their lives. One way of achieving this is through carnival.