ABSTRACT
Participating in carnival undermines the possibility of writing an objective account. This extraordinary experience, at once creative, transgressive, and intensely pleasurable, melts the cool detachment of the traditional academic. Both the authors of this chapter, one formed at the center, as the British defined it, of an empire, the other at its margin, made their way to carnival from quite different positions, but we find ourselves united in our love of the whirlwind of art, passion, and struggle that carnival unleashes every year. We recognize that there are almost as many ways of analyzing carnival as there are cities that host this marvelous spectacle, but in this chapter we articulate a common perspective, which, though infused with our own subjectivity, nevertheless makes a serious effort to interpret the two largest Caribbean carnivals in the UK.1
