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Book Details
Abstract
Via an ethnographic study of the community festivals of Siena Province in central Italy, ‘Festivals, Affect and Identity’ investigates the affective and fluid aspects of reality to establish an integrated perspective on issues of continuity and rupture, tradition and modernity, and nature and culture. Offering an illustration of the explanatory power of continental philosophy, this text demonstrates the accessibility of highly abstract critical theory when examined in relation to specific events and their detailed analysis.
‘This is a highly original piece of work, centring upon a theoretical framework which is innovative to say the least – one might even call it adventurous. It combines painstaking and meticulous ethnography with considerable theoretical sophistication and reflexivity in an engaging way that makes the book not only very readable, but immensely enjoyable.’ —Professor Ullrich Kockel, University of Ulster
‘A brilliant book! With extensive ethnography, Lita Crociani-Windland captures Siena’s famous Palio and other colourful community festivals in Tuscany. As she shows convincingly, an understanding of the festivals benefits from a Deleuzian perspective. This book will attract a wide readership.’ —Professor Helena Wulff, Stockholm University
Lita Crociani-Windland is Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Fellow of the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies at the University of the West of England, where she also gained her MSc and PhD.
‘Festivals, Affect and Identity’ offers an outline of areas of continental philosophy and critical theory, which involve high levels of abstractions, yet become more accessible when related to specific events and their detailed analysis. The case study material enables theories to become more understandable in relation to application, triangulation and comparison with different theoretical frameworks. It puts flesh on the ‘hard to get hold of’ nature of continental philosophy.
Maintaining continuity in the face of problems and ruptures and the interplay of fluidity and structure are central aspects explored and illustrated by ethnography focused on the affective dynamics of four festivals: the Palio in Siena and the Bravio in Montepulciano, both based on competitive territorial divisions; the Bruscello in Montepulciano and the Teatro Povero in Monticchiello, both theatres with links to sharecropping, a long established agrarian practice vanquished by modernity. The detailed analysis applied to this selection of case studies offers a grounding of theoretical concepts and an example of how these may be applied to analyse different phenomena. This approach sees the imprint of environmental and historical conditions as generative of a dynamic process of ever evolving community identities for which festivals provide expression, while also providing a way of living with them.
‘Crociani-Windland offers an incisive analysis of the intersection of politics, memory, social history and the unconscious in the formation of subjectivity. Combining attunement to the ancestral echoes of her own being, sophisticated psychosocial analysis, and carefully grounded ethnography, the author challenges the dichotomy of past and present, and offers hopeful evidence that in a homogenizing and materializing world, everyday rituals offer powerful potential for the reclaiming of agency and the reclaiming of genealogy and identity in communities.’ —Professor Michael O’Loughlin, Adelphi University, New York, Co-chair of the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture & Society
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front Matter | i | ||
| Half Title | i | ||
| Title | iii | ||
| Copyright | iv | ||
| TABLE OF CONTENTS | v | ||
| LIST OF FIGURES | vii | ||
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | ix | ||
| Main Matter | 1 | ||
| CHAPTER 1\rIntroduction | 1 | ||
| Affective and Psychosocial Dimensions of Three Communities and Four Festivals | 3 | ||
| Festivals, Issues and Perspectives | 5 | ||
| The Aim and Scope of the Research Itself | 7 | ||
| Situating the Research Within Some of the Literature | 10 | ||
| Chapter Outlines | 13 | ||
| Getting Behind and Beyond the Pictures | 14 | ||
| CHAPTER 2 Learning, Identity, Duration and the Virtual | 17 | ||
| Introduction | 17 | ||
| Arrival and Waking Up to Different Possibilities | 18 | ||
| Reflections on the Writing of This Chapter | 22 | ||
| Bergson’s ‘Intuition as a Method’ | 22 | ||
| Duration | 24 | ||
| A Duration-Based Notion of Dynamic Identity | 25 | ||
| The Productivity of the Problem – Reaching for Roots in the Virtual | 28 | ||
| Truth, Genealogy and Interpretation | 29 | ||
| Conclusion | 31 | ||
| CHAPTER 3 Siena and its Province – An Overview | 33 | ||
| Introduction | 33 | ||
| The Land and the Water | 34 | ||
| Sienese Clay up to Monte Amiata | 34 | ||
| Val d’Orcia | 35 | ||
| Monticchiello | 35 | ||
| Montepulciano | 36 | ||
| Valdichiana | 36 | ||
| Siena’s Soil and Florence’s Water | 38 | ||
| Siena | 38 | ||
| Territorial and Administrative Features of Italian Comuni | 39 | ||
| A Brief Overview of the Economy of the Siena Province | 39 | ||
| Tourism and Festivals | 40 | ||
| Conclusion | 42 | ||
| CHAPTER 4 Siena and the Palio – War and State Machine – Identity and Becoming | 43 | ||
| Introduction | 43 | ||
| Two Days at the Race – August 2000 | 44 | ||
| The Race in Modern Times | 48 | ||
| The Structure of the City and its Relation to the Palio | 49 | ||
| The Contrade and the Celebrations Preceding the Race | 50 | ||
| A Brief History of Siena and the Palio | 51 | ||
| Self/Other – Subjugation/Independence | 55 | ||
| State and War Machine – Identity and Becoming | 57 | ||
| Becoming-Animal, Affective-Infective Dynamics, War and Hunting | 59 | ||
| Becoming-Woman, Becoming-Child, Play and Creativity | 62 | ||
| Social Capital, Trust, Risk and Uncertainty | 64 | ||
| Conclusion | 65 | ||
| CHAPTER 5 Montepulciano’s Bruscello Theatre – Rupture, Continuity and the ‘Refrain’ | 67 | ||
| Introduction | 67 | ||
| Gestures, Poetry and Music from Farmyards to Town Square | 68 | ||
| The Show Begins | 70 | ||
| A Local Flavour | 72 | ||
| Trees and Roots | 73 | ||
| Meter and Verse | 74 | ||
| Music | 75 | ||
| We Are the Music while the Music Lasts… | 77 | ||
| The Actors and the Compagnia Popolare del Bruscello | 78 | ||
| The Themes of Plays – Foundation Myths, Local History and Medieval Times | 80 | ||
| Wild Bushes, Trees and Branches and as Slippery as the Serpent! | 82 | ||
| The Serpent and the Tree | 83 | ||
| Fluidity and Structure – Bruscello, an Itinerant Tree or Tree with Rhizomic Roots | 84 | ||
| The Balance of Verse and Music in the Light of Deleuze and Guattari’s Notion of ‘Refrain’ | 85 | ||
| Territory and Expression – Signature and Style | 87 | ||
| Conclusion | 89 | ||
| CHAPTER 6 The ‘Problem/Idea’ of Montepulciano – How to be Autonomous in the Face of Overwhelming Force | 91 | ||
| Introduction | 91 | ||
| Founding Myths and Janus Qualities – Yet Another Expression of Fluid Identity | 91 | ||
| Historical Background – A Frontier Town Caught Between Bigger Neighbours | 93 | ||
| The ‘Problem/Idea’ of Montepulciano – How to be Autonomous in the Face of Overwhelming Force | 94 | ||
| Social Fragmentation | 96 | ||
| Backwards and Forwards in a Tension of Embodied Yet Transcendent Identity | 96 | ||
| Conclusion | 97 | ||
| CHAPTER 7 Montepulciano’s Bravio Delle Botti – A Festival in the Making | 99 | ||
| Introduction | 99 | ||
| Competition and Fluidity | 100 | ||
| The Race | 102 | ||
| Drums, Flags and Candles | 103 | ||
| Refashioning Antiquity | 105 | ||
| Money, Sex and Candles | 107 | ||
| The Solemn and the Profane | 107 | ||
| The ‘Fair’ and the Foul | 109 | ||
| Food, Wine and Fundraising – The Social and Economic Gains of Working for Leisure | 111 | ||
| The Pecking Order – Feminine Aggression and Intergroup Dynamics | 112 | ||
| Culinary Make-Believe as Innovation | 114 | ||
| Hybridity and Make-Believe | 116 | ||
| Cunning as Mimesis of Death | 116 | ||
| Affect Regulation, Survival, Defiance and Economy of Truth | 119 | ||
| Cunning Braggarts | 121 | ||
| Craftiness and Artifactuality | 123 | ||
| Further Aspects of Montepulciano’s Ambivalence | 125 | ||
| Conclusion | 126 | ||
| CHAPTER 8 Sharecropping and Modernity | 127 | ||
| Introduction | 127 | ||
| The Countryside – Loving, Hating and Leaving – An Overview | 128 | ||
| A Very Brief History of Sharecropping | 129 | ||
| The City, Loving and Leaving: Montepulciano and the 1970s | 137 | ||
| Teatro Popolare e Cultura Moderna | 138 | ||
| Social Fluidity and Popular Culture | 142 | ||
| Conclusion | 143 | ||
| CHAPTER 9 Monticchiello – A Community Under Siege | 145 | ||
| Introduction | 145 | ||
| A Setting Full of History | 146 | ||
| Monticchiello – Siena’s Border Fortress | 147 | ||
| Threat to Identity and Survival in More Recent Times | 149 | ||
| Initial Conditions and Historical Drama Beginnings | 151 | ||
| Autodramma – ‘Performing Oneself ’ | 152 | ||
| Memories of Sharecropping | 154 | ||
| A Cooperative Return to the Land – The Theatre is Everything | 157 | ||
| A Change of Management | 160 | ||
| To the New Millennium | 160 | ||
| Conclusion | 162 | ||
| CHAPTER 10 A Tree with its Roots in the Air – Monticchiello’s Theatre of the ‘Virtual’ | 163 | ||
| Introduction | 163 | ||
| TEPOPOTRATOS – A Matter of Life and Death | 164 | ||
| TEPOPOTRATOS – 2002 – The Danger of Death by Fossilisation | 167 | ||
| The Refrain of Being Popular | 169 | ||
| Besieged from Without and Within | 171 | ||
| Fola 2004 – A Fairy Tale of Desperate Cunning | 174 | ||
| A Tree with its Roots in the Air | 177 | ||
| Conclusion | 178 | ||
| CHAPTER 11 Conclusion | 179 | ||
| Final Reflections on Some of the Themes | 182 | ||
| A Final Word to Humour | 184 | ||
| Back Matter | 187 | ||
| BIBLIOGRAPHY | 187 | ||
| INDEX | 201 |