1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910255242303321

Autore

Kumaraswami Par

Titolo

The Social Life of Literature in Revolutionary Cuba [[electronic resource] ] : Narrative, Identity, and Well-being / / by Par Kumaraswami

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Palgrave Macmillan US : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2016

ISBN

1-137-55940-3

9781137559401

Edizione

[1st ed. 2016.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (229 p.)

Disciplina

860.997291

Soggetti

Ethnology—Latin America

America—History

Civilization—History

Culture—Study and teaching

America—Literatures

Cultural studies

Latin American Culture

History of the Americas

Cultural History

Regional and Cultural Studies

North American Literature

Cultural Studies

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Sommario/riassunto

This study explores the social functions of literature from the perspective of policymakers, writers, readers and residents in contemporary Cuba. It provides a new perspective on post-59 Cuban literature that underlines how cultural policy has made literature a hybrid activity between elite and mass culture, with inherent social, rather than aesthetic or political, value. Whilst many traditional studies of Cuban literature assume either its subjugation to politics and ideology or, conversely, its role in resisting political discourse via a



rather naïve notion of artistic freedom, this project explores the varied, dynamic and multiple ways in which literature works in Cuban society: as a catalyst for identity construction aimed at consensus and belonging, but also as an instrument of self-differentiation and self-definition, even in the more recent context of a more market-oriented system. The study reviews policy from 1959 to the present, and presents contemporary case studies exploring the social functions of literature for writers, readers and ordinary Havana residents. .