I Carnevali contemporanei e il rapporto con la tradizione

Contemporary Carnivals that are claimed to make reference to a specific, more or less longstanding or historically verified, local tradition appear to be the outcome of a process of “retraditionalization” based on means of relearning local traditions: a necessary prerequisite for them, which used to be social practices, to resurface today as cultural heritage. Such process is partly based on the assumption that actions and behaviors are persistent and partly – if not especially – on the authority and foundational power of writing, and its outcome is the acquisition of awareness of their being the signs of a traditional style that marks a distinction. Thus, within the scope of today’s prevailing picturesque, theatrical, and playful character of Carnivals, they acquire the meaning and value of cultural symbols that assist the redefinition of local identities. From this perspective, contemporary Carnivals have the striking tendency to be timely by referring to the untimely, namely by drawing on the archaic and revitalizing it through communication, picking it as the topic of a discourse of and about the contemporary. This way, they have in many cases contributed, also thanks to forms of cultural creativity seen as the ability to innovate pre-existing models that have become objects of heritagization, to the construction of local identities and their exhibition within the scope of politics that focus on alternative and cultural tourism.