The theme as a discursive practice in carnival judging: semiotics, image, and polychromy in the 1989 Beija-Flor Parade: Rats and Vultures, Let Go of My Costume by Joãosinho Trinta

Abstract

This article reflects on the "Theme" (*Enredo*) category in the judging of samba school parades, taking as its object of analysis the parade presented by the Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba Beija-Flor de Nilópolis during the 1989 Carnival, titled *Ratos e urubus, larguem minha fantasia* ("Rats and Vultures, Let Go of My Costume"). The theoretical reflection stems from the understanding that the Carnival theme is not realized exclusively through verbal language but is constituted through the articulation of various signifying materialities, including images, floats, costumes, colors, bodies, gestures, spatial arrangements, and scenic elements. For this analysis, the article draws upon the theoretical premises of Charles Sanders Peirce’s (2005) semiotics—specifically the concept of the sign and the relationships between the object and the interpretant—in dialogue with the concept of "Polychromy" (*Policromia*), developed by Tania Clemente de Souza (1998, 2000, 2001) for the discursive analysis of non-verbal elements. The article also considers the Judges' Manual as an institutional mechanism that guides and organizes the perspective of the person evaluating the parade. It argues that judging the "Theme" category involves reading a narrative that materializes in a pluralistic way; therefore, it cannot be reduced to its verbal formulation or to the identification of pre-established correspondences between visual elements and meanings. Analysis of the 1989 parade reveals how the tension between luxury and poverty, trash and nobility, and exclusion and celebration constitutes a complex network of signification in which different materialities contribute to the production of meaning effects. The article concludes that the dialogue between Peircean semiotics and the notion of Polychromy enables a broader understanding of the "Theme" category and allows for a critical examination of the limits and possibilities of the evaluative gaze in Carnival judging.