Carnevale e agone tragico: sulla Historische Psychologie des Karnevals di Florens Christian Rang

After editing the 1983 fi rst Italian edition for Arsenale Editore, later reprinted by Bollati Boringhieri in 2008, the author of this essay returns to the themes of Florens Christian Rang’s Historische Psychologie des Karnevals (1909-1927/1928). Starting from a brief but comprehensive reconstruction of the biographical and intellectual profi le of this eccentric thinker and theologian, the article fi rst further investigates his thesis on the Babylonian origin of the Carnival, and secondly, the relationship between Carnival and tragic agon. Th e “breach of astrology, and therefore the fl ight from destiny, as determined by the course of the stars” is the link that binds these two ritual spheres and that leads to a philosophical dialogue, as a contest of words, a race of thought for salvation.