Havana
Subtitle: the making of Cuban culture
By: Antoni Kapcia.
Publisher: Berg
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 236
ISBN-13: 9781859738375; 9781859738320
Subjects: Havana (Cuba) -- Civilization
Description: "Havana offers an account of the city and its cultural development, focusing especially on the last two centuries and on the role played by the city's cultural communities in the search for national identity. The author introduces us to a marginal city with roots in the sixteenth century, taking us through the periods when it was a sugar boomtown, pulled between empires, a decadent metropolis, a site of both cultural revolution and relative stagnation during the development of the Revolution to its revival in the 1990s. He looks at the often creative tensions between external influences (especially Spain, France and the United States) and indigenous cultural pressures. Areas covered include architecture, literature, music, dance, cinema and the press."

"Cosmopolitan playground and nationalist vanguard, Havana has developed its own style while at the same time both reflecting and directing the complicated politics of the whole of Cuba. This book offers a concise introduction to one of the most intriguing cities of the twenty-first century."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-225)  and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: The Havana mosaic : sweetness and light; title: Images of Havana; title: Havana as unique; title: The emergence of the city; title: Theoretical issues; title: The structure and aim of the book; title: 1. The colony (1550s-1902). Historical overview; title: The city in the shadows; title: Pre-sugar Havana (1550s-1760s); title: The boom city : sugar and the evolution of a capital (1750s-1901); title: 2. The republic (1902-1958). Historical overview; title: A nation without a capital, and capital without a nation (1902-33); title: Havana as the 'cultural problem' (1934-58); title: Bohemia case study; title: Conclusion; title: 3. The revolution from 1959 to 1990. Historical overview; title: Dark days and revolutionary enlightenment (1959-71); title: The grey years; title: Conformity and stagnation (the 1970s and 1980s); title: Case study : bohemia and Granma; title: 4. The revolution in a new light? : Havana as a new cultural space. Historical overview; title: The periódo especial and Havana; title: The evolution and rediscovery of a Havana culture; title: Case study : the casas de culture; title: Conclusion : Havana as chiaroscuro.