| In this dissertation, Bahamian Junkanoo is analyzed as a theatrical event using Victor Turner's concept of the "social drama" as a basic unit of analysis. This dissertation is deliberately removed from received literary-based definitions of theatre. By taking Bahamian Junkanoo as its central subject, this dissertation is a preliminary attempt to extend the analysis of theatre to kinds of events and to aesthetic considerations not always customary in the field of theatre studies.;Chapter One introduces Turner's central concepts and theories. Chapter Two treats the history of Bahamian Junkanoo from the 1800's to the 1980's, with the relationships between Junkanoo and Bahamian politics as its pivot point. Chapter Three describes and analyzes the relationships between contemporary Junkanoo and recent Bahamian political history; the central concern of this chapter is how the new Black power structure used Junkanoo in celebrating its victory. Chapter Four describes the esthetics of contemporary Junkanoo from the viewpoint of its participants, and argues that the essential feature of Junkanoo is a dialectic between "flow" and "communitas" experiences. Chapter Five summarizes the functions of Bahamian Junkanoo in modern Bahamian Society, and argues that the survival of Bahamian Junkanoo is connected with the close connection the festival has maintained with its originators, underprivileged Bahamian Blacks, and second, that Junkanoo has thrived because it has adapted to changing Bahamian political realities and concerns. Today Bahamian Junkanoo speaks not only to the underprivileged but also to the concerns of more privileged Blacks and Whites and to the image of the Bahamas itself. |
