Abstract
In Sardinia, past and present, continuity and change, tradition and invention,
local and global coexist in perfect symbiosis in the numerous carnivals that connote the
island’s festive carnival time. And in them also coexist inversion and subversion, mockery
and contestation, trial and putting to death of the carnival, that is, some of the constituent
features of the carnival phenomena of the Mediterranean area, declining variously and
returning, therefore, an articulated and complex context.
Carnival, therefore, occupies an important space in Sardinia and comes to the attention of
scholars with continuously renewed meanings and functions. In this direction, the contribution intends to propose a review, certainly not complete and exhaustive, of Sardinian
carnivals, attempting to highlight the complexity and plurality of the carnival phenomenon
on the island.
Keywords: Masks, Carnivals, Cultural heritage, Sardinia