Title: Black writing, culture, and the state in Latin America /
Authors: Branche, Jerome
Year: 2015
Subjects: Latin American literature Black authors History and criticism.; Black people Latin America Intellectual life.; Black people Caribbean Area Intellectual life.; Arts, Black Latin America.; Arts, Black Caribbean Area.; HISTORY / Latin America / General.; HISTORY / Social History.; LITERARY CRITICISM / Caribbean & Latin American.; Arts, Black; Blacks Intellectual life; Latin American literature Black authors; Caribbean Area; Latin America
Abstract: "Imagine the tension that existed between the emerging nations and governments throughout the Latin American world and the cultural life of former enslaved Africans and their descendants. A world of cultural production, in the form of literature, poetry, art, music, and eventually film, would often simultaneously contravene or cooperate with the newly established order of Latin American nations negotiating independence and a new political and cultural balance. In Black Writing, Culture, and the State in Latin America, Jerome Branche presents the reader with the complex landscape of art and literature among Afro-Hispanic and Latin artists. Branche and his contributors describe individuals such as Juan Francisco Manzano, who wrote an antislavery novel in Cuba during the nineteenth century. The reader finds a thriving Afro-Hispanic theatrical presence throughout Latin America and even across the Atlantic. The role of black women in poetry and literature comes to the forefront in the Caribbean, presenting a powerful reminder of the diversity that defines the region. All too often, the disciplines of film studies, literary criticism, and art history ignore the opportunity to collaborate in a dialogue. Branche and his contributors present a unified approach, however, suggesting that cultural production should not be viewed narrowly, especially when studying the achievements of the Afro-Latin world"--