Explorations in Anthropology

Passion, Politics and Popular Culture

By: William Washabaugh

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Paperback | 1 September 1996 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
232 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
21.59 x 13.97 x 1.35

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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.

Industry 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 for 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 'The social and political context of the performance is well-documented.' The Journal 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 Politics 'His [Washabaugh's] book is to be heartily recommended' Hispanic Research Journal ' ... a valuable and very welcome introduction to some of the political dimensions of flamencology ... ' Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute '...the reader is exposed to an in-depth analysis of the politics of flamenco past and present, acknowledging the contradictions of diverse perspectives, and refreshing in its proximity to the paradoxical, processual and multi-faceted experience of everyday reality.' Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford (JASO)

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