'The return of Crazy Mother': The cultural politics of carnival in 1930s Dijon

The political elite in inter-war France sought innovative ways to reconcile modernization agendas with existing regional cultural traditions. Regional folkloric traditions and ludic festivals provided refuge from maligned national narratives. Burgundians, notably, drew upon carnival practices and motifs to solicit broad participation in a state-sanctioned project of regional modernization. Although organized by ostensibly opposed political, social, commercial, and cultural interests, Dijon's Mere-Folle carnival and subsequent carnaval parades accomplished the same goals. These included creating a new spirit of civic pride and unity, providing a time and space for overlapping and converging transformations to coexist, and stabilizing cultural practices deemed traditional.