Performing the festival : an experiential autoethnography of the festival of Sant’Efisio in Sardinia

Abstract

This research project considers festivals as sites of transformation, adaptation and negotiation for the communities interacting with their social environment. Employing a case-study strategy, the thesis carries out an in-depth exploration of one of the most celebrated events in the island of Sardinia (Italy): the Festival of Sant’Efisio. This complex celebration has been performed for 368 years to fulfil a vow in honour of the martyr and saint Efisio, who is believed to have saved Sardinia from the plague in the 17th century. The festival includes a multitude of secular and religious events and ceremonies which take place around a four-day pilgrimage. This study is placed within an interpretative phenomenological framework, underpinned by a feminist approach throughout, that considers “performance” as the key theoretical lens to inform the analysis of the following socio-cultural issues in festivals: 1) the display of cultural heritage; 2) community construction and conflict; and 3) gendered practices. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, both in person and online, this project investigates the effects of social and cultural transformations in relation to these issues within the Festival of Sant’Efisio, by addressing how the festival is interpreted, experienced, felt and performed by the people involved. The researcher’s perspective and experience are central to this enquiry and are discussed throughout by means of autoethnography. I suggest that the way people feel in festivals is crucial to understand their socio-cultural significance, as well as their survival through the change of time.