Through the Kaleidoscope: The Experience of Modernity in Latin America - Softcover

9781859842621: Through the Kaleidoscope: The Experience of Modernity in Latin America

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1859842623 ISBN 13: 9781859842621

Publisher: Verso, 2001

Modernity in Latin America is defined above all by its multi-layered, kaleidoscopic quality. Reminiscent of Octavio Paz’s labyrinth, it is a modernity which has accommodated a piling-on of new traditions to old, a blending of external cultures with local, and of high cultures with more popular ones—mixes which allowed a rich and celebratory avant-garde movement, for example, to emerge in the 1920s, and prompted the explosive growth of cities like Rio de Janeiro. Many such cultural (as well as technological) innovations have occurred without equivalent changes in social and political life, however, and so the region has also been at the mercy of what might be termed an uneven development in many of its civic institutions.

In this prestigious volume of original essays, many of the best writers on the region are brought together to examine the nature and manifestations of a specifically Latin American modernity. Beatriz Sarlo and Nicolau Sevcenko write about Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo in an exploration of twentieth century urban experience and shifting patterns of migration and immigration; Renato Ortiz and Ana Lopez look at mass media and the ways in which radio, television and cinema have shaped modernity; Jose Jorge de Carvalho, Jose de Souza Martins and Nelson Manrique address questions of religion, politics, ideology and social movements; Gwen Kirkpatrick and Beatriz Rezende explore the intricacies of artistic and literary modernism; and Nestor Canclini and Ruben Oliven open the collection with essays which unravel the many forces – the legacy of slavery, the freedom from an unquestioning faith in development and ‘progress’, the impact of globalisation – that have given rise to a characteristically hybrid modernity.

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About the Author:

Vivian Schelling is Senior Lecturer in Third World and Development Studies at the University of East London. She is author of A Presenca do Povo na Cultura Brasileira and co-author (with William Rowe) of Memory and Modernity: Popular Culture in Latin America.

Beatriz Sarlo is one of Latin America’s most influential cultural critics. She is the co-founder of the journal Punto de Vista, and the author of several books, including Scenes from Postmodern Life.

James Dunkerley is Professor of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, and Director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas. His books include Rebellion in the Veins, Power in the Isthmus and The Long War, all published by Verso.

John King is Professor of Latin American Cultural History at the University of Warwick.

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