Chorus - (Contemporary Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures) by Carlos Garrido Castellano (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Chorus: Sonic Politics of the Carnivalesque in Tragic Times posits the carnivalesque as a fertile laboratory to understand and go past our crisis-driven contemporaneity. The book engages with sound and noise from Cádiz, one of the capital cities of carnival in Spain, to situate carnivalesque mobilisation as a vibrant platform where our capacity to redemocratise our societies and to envisage liveable futures is revitalised. Chorus argues that the connection between freedom and carnival (carnival being a parenthesis that "liberates" individual subjectivity) has to be profoundly rethought, as freedom and spontaneity have become part of neoliberal governability.

Chorus demonstrates that carnival music is crucial to understand collective ways of being and acting in common, ways that go beyond the structured and established avenues of "formal", parliamentary politics. Carnival music is also essential to understand and move beyond a carnivalised politics (laughter being simultaneously used to open and curtail public debate; neo-conservative jester-kings that are ascending to power; and a long etcetera). More importantly, carnival sonics is a public intervention that brings its own situated, practice-based thinking. In Chorus, I argue that participating in carnival groups implies acting and being in public politically.

Review Quotes

'Debates on Cádiz Carnival reach full age: here you will find inverted values and minor literature, political and postcolonial criticism, feminism and animalism to get your hands (and even your ears) dirty.' - Pedro G. Romero, visual artist, curator and researcher

'This book provides a lucid and necessary intervention that destabilises hegemonic narratives on carnival, which are traditionally confined to male-centred popular discourses. Through a situated critical and feminist approach, the book does more than examining street experiences where women are occupying the spaces we want to enjoy. It also situates carnival as a vibrant political space, where meaning is always fought over and power resituated. Rethinking history from the margins, with critical joy and commitment is a form of feminist dissidence.' - Susana Ginesta Gamethaza, specialist in equality politics and leading author of Cadiwoman carnival group

'This fascinating and totally original book confirms Carlos Garrido Castellano's standing as amongst the most ambitious and accomplished critics of contemporary Spain. Interdisciplinary in approach, his work is characterised by sophisticated but jargon-free theoretical approaches alongside painstaking archival and ethnographic research. This, alongside a refreshingly self-reflective approach to his own positionality, ensures that his work will retain its academic and ideological charge beyond the current political moment. Highly recommended.' - Professor Duncan Wheeler, University of Leeds