The "new man" in Cuba
Subtitle: culture and identity in the Revolution
By: Ana Serra.
Series: Contemporary Cuba
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Gainesville, FL
Language: eng
Number of pages: 210
ISBN-13: 9780813030722
Subjects: Cuban literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Cuba -- History -- Revolution, 1959 -- Literature and the revolution; National characteristics, Cuban, in literature; Politics and literature -- Cuba
Description: "The Cuban Revolution not only changed the political regime of the island nation, it also transformed Cuban cultural identity. Che Guevara coined the idea of the "New Man" to represent the unique revolutionary identity that all Cubans were called to take on. In the speeches of the era, the "New Man" adopted different guises according to the political campaign of the day: the literacy worker, the committed intellectual, the hardworking "New Woman," or the heroic sugarcane cutter, among others." "Tracing the rise and fall of the "New Man," Ana Serra examines political speeches and award-winning novels that constructed this new Identity during the formative years of the Castro regime. Serra argues that during the early revolutionary period, writers helped create the identity of the "New Man" while simultaneously criticizing its problematic aspects. Although the writers professed unconditional support for the revolution, their texts contained prophetic insights into the conflicts that the new identity would generate."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The culture that the Revolution created; title: Speaking at cross purposes : the failed Iientification between teachers and students in the literacy campaign; title: Body versus mind : an Intellectual's memoirs expose his negative image; title: Harvesting the nation : how Cuba became unified in the historical zafra; title: Frustrated mothers, virgin workers, and masked whores : the  "new woman" at work; title: - Toward a revolutionary utopia : fluid identities in a child's account; title: Identity and Its discontents : Leonardo Padura Fuentes looks back at the new man.