BY

ii As the home of the most famous and successful carnival, the celebration in the city of Rio de Janeiro has quickly transformed into the world-model for carnivals in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, the image of Brazil has played an increasingly influential role in the development of carnival in the Dominican Republic. There are many factors that make carnival in Rio de Janeiro enviable: its economic success, mass tourist appeal, exaggerated grandiloquence, heightened sexuality, and its profound association with the musical genre samba. However, the Dominican state’s desire to imitate Brazilian carnival is not wholly compatible with the customary carnival activities of the Dominican people, nor has it contributed to a substantial change in carnival practices within the Dominican Republic. This thesis investigates both the emergence of carnival practices and musical nationalism in Brazil and the Dominican Republic. This is in order to understand how carnival in Rio developed into the most successful and desirable model for carnival and the conditions tha