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  • © 2009

Cuba in the Special Period

Culture and Ideology in the 1990s

Palgrave Macmillan

Part of the book series: New Directions in Latino American Cultures (NDLAC)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
  2. Writing the Special Period: An Introduction

    1. Writing the Special Period: An Introduction

      • Ariana Hernandez-Reguant
      Pages 1-18
  3. Foreign Commerce

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 19-19
    2. Filmmaking with Foreigners

      • Cristina Venegas
      Pages 37-50
  4. Plural Nation

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 67-67
    2. Multicubanidad

      • Ariana Hernandez-Reguant
      Pages 69-88
    3. Wandering in Russian

      • Jacqueline Loss
      Pages 105-122
    4. The “Letter of the Year” and the Prophetics of Revolution

      • Ariana Hernandez-Reguant
      Pages 123-140
  5. Transnational Publics

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 141-141
    2. El Rap Cubano: Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop the Movement

      • Roberto Zurbano, Kate Levitt
      Pages 143-158
  6. Back Matter

    Pages 197-226

About this book

This collection examines Cuban cultural production during the Special Period of the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Bloc. Contributors address the cultural forms; and the associated ethics and practices of labour, leisure, and bureaucratic organization that arose in the transformation of the socialist cultural infrastructure.

Reviews

"The well-researched essays, covering topics as diverse as literature, art, Santeria, cinema, rap and issues of identity and ethnicity provide rich accounts of the key themes and contractions of the Special Period and how they affected specific groups of cultural producers and expressive communities. Linking them together is the question of how the combination of weakened state institutions, economic crisis and new access to transnational flows of capital and ideas fostered the conditions for new modes of expression and the rearticulation of identities. Each individual essay offers a detailed and . . . nuanced interpretation of the complex relationship between culture and ideology." - The Journal of Latin American Studies

"Those readers, who, like me, lived in Cuba during the austere Special Period, will find echoes of their own experiences.However, those who have never even visited the island will also discover a great deal in the rich details of these essays. This specificity is the book's strength - in providing rich detail." - Journal of Cuban Studies

"A necessary and welcome reflection on the Special Period in Cuba as an instance of late socialism . . . these insightful essays shed light on the changes that Cuba's opening to global markets of mass culture brought to the cultural field . . . This important collection is a valuable contribution to a long overdue and necessary dialogue." - New West Indian Guide

"This is a first rate collection comprised of work by respected specialists who develop a collective view of a knotty issue: how Cuban socialism survived, or didn't, in the period attending the dissolution of the Soviet Union. While the express ambition of the book is to refine debates about globalization, to read Hernandez's introduction, the fate of late socialism, and other broad political and economic patterns of observation, the practice of focusing on particular cultural phenomena makes good on the ambition precisely because macro questions cede to the micro-histories of art's negotiation with particular constraints and opportunities. A strong contribution to the field." - Doris Sommer, Ira and Jewell Williams Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University

"This book offers a definitive backward-glance at a contradictory threshold in Cuban history, a moment that has been celebrated and over-exposed at the level of consumption but relatively under-analyzed. Hernandez-Reguant's unprecedented collection gathers a host of thinkers who dwell critically in the culture of the Special Period and think through its contradictions with subtlety and rigor. Hernandez-Reguant and her contributors illuminate what was at stake - politically, culturally, and socially - in the Special Period, and remind us why it is important to understand both its exceptionality and its lasting effects." - Ana Maria Dopico, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Spanish and Portuguese, New York University

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego, USA

    Ariana Hernandez-Reguant

About the editor

ARIANA HERNANDEZ-REGUANT is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of California, San Diego, USA.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access