The World of Lucha Libre Secre
Levi, Heather
ISBN 10: 0822342324 ISBN 13: 9780822342328
Published by Duke University Press, 2008
Used
Soft cover
From
World of Books (was SecondSale), Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
AbeBooks Seller since December 20, 2007
This specific item is no longer available.
About this Item
Description:
Item in acceptable condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00105998020
Synopsis:
The World of Lucha Libre is an insider’s account of lucha libre, the popular Mexican form of professional wrestling. Heather Levi spent more than a year immersed in the world of wrestling in Mexico City. Not only did she observe live events and interview wrestlers, referees, officials, promoters, and reporters; she also apprenticed with a retired luchador (wrestler). Drawing on her insider’s perspective, she explores lucha libre as a cultural performance, an occupational subculture, and a set of symbols that circulate through Mexican culture and politics. Levi argues that the broad appeal of lucha libre lies in its capacity to stage contradictions at the heart of Mexican national identity: between the rural and the urban, tradition and modernity, ritual and parody, machismo and feminism, politics and spectacle.
Levi considers lucha libre in light of scholarship about sport, modernization, and the formation of the Mexican nation-state, and in connection to professional wrestling in the United States. She examines the role of secrecy in wrestling, the relationship between wrestlers and the characters they embody, and the meanings of the masks worn by luchadors. She discusses male wrestlers who perform masculine roles, those who cross-dress and perform feminine roles, and female wrestlers who wrestle each other. Investigating the relationship between lucha libre and the mass media, she highlights the history of the sport’s engagement with television: it was televised briefly in the early 1950s, but not again until 1991. Finally, Levi traces the circulation of lucha libre symbols in avant-garde artistic movements and its appropriation in left-wing political discourse. The World of Lucha Libre shows how a sport imported from the United States in the 1930s came to be an iconic symbol of Mexican cultural authenticity.
About the Author:
Heather Levi is Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Temple University.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Bibliographic Details
Title: The World of Lucha Libre Secre
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication Date: 2008
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Acceptable