Flamenco: Passion, Politics and Popular Culture / Edition 1

by William Washabaugh

Overview

Flamenco is renowned for its passion and flamboyance. Yet because it generates such visceral responses, it is often overlooked as a site for subtler discourses. This absorbing book articulates powerful and convincing arguments on such key subjects as ethnicity, irony, authenticity, the body and resistance. Franco's 'politics of original sin' had left its mark on every aspect of Spanish life between 1936 and 1975, and flamenco music was no exception. Although widely portrayed as an apolitical, even frivolous form of entertainment, flamenco is shown here to have played a role in both the strategies of Franco's supporters and of those who opposed him. The author explores how the meaning of flamenco shifts according to the social, cultural and historical contexts within which it appears. In so doing, he demonstrates that flamenco is an ideal subject for analyzing the construction and appropriation of popular culture, given the way in which it was developed for middle-class audiences, converted into grand spectacle, and conscripted to serve political ends.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781859731710
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/01/1996
Series:	Explorations in Anthropology
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1410L (what's this?)

About the Author

William Washabaugh Professor of Anthropology,University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee

Table of Contents

1 The Politics of Passion: Flamenco, Power, and the Body, 2 The Histories of Flamenco, 3 The Pleasures of Music, 4 Gypsies, 5 The Body, 6 Women, 7 Anglo Perspectives on Flamenco Music, 8 I Music, Resistance, and Popular Culture 9 "Rito y Geografia del Cante"

Editorial Reviews

... [a] closely argued and intriguing book.” —The Times Literary Supplement

“I would recommend this book as a useful, even essential, addition to any (ethnomusicologist's) library, both for its contribution to the field of flamenco studies and fo r its engagement with a range of topical themes and theoretical concerns and the author's laudable attempt to propose, in light of these, fresh ways of looking at the flamenco phenomenon.” —British Jourbanal of Ethnomusicology

“The social and politi cal context of the performance is well-documented.” —The Jourbanal of Iberian and Latin-American Studies

“...provides a valuable contribution to our understanding of flamenco and other aspects of Andalusian society.” —South European Society and Poli tics

“His [Washabaugh's] book is to be heartily recommended” —Hispanic Research Jourbanal

“... a valuable and very welcome introduction to some of the political dimensions of flamencology ...” —Jourbanal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

From the Publisher

... a valuable and very welcome introduction to some of the political dimensions of flamencology ...

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

His [Washabaugh's] book is to be heartily recommended

Hispanic Research Journal

...provides a valuable contribution to our understanding of flamenco and other aspects of Andalusian society.

South European Society and Poli tics

The social and politi cal context of the performance is well-documented.

The Journal of Iberian and Latin-American Studies

I would recommend this book as a useful, even essential, addition to any (ethnomusicologist's) library, both for its contribution to the field of flamenco studies and fo r its engagement with a range of topical themes and theoretical concerns and the author's laudable attempt to propose, in light of these, fresh ways of looking at the flamenco phenomenon.

British Journal of Ethnomusicology

... [a] closely argued and intriguing book.

The Times Literary Supplement