- Paperback: 216 pages
- Publisher: Temple University Press (January 22, 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1566394848
- ISBN-13: 978-1566394840
Merengue the quintessential Dominican dance music has a long and complex
history, both on the island and in the large immigrant community in New
York City. In this ambitious work, Paul Austerlitz unravels the African
and Iberian roots of merengue and traces its growth under dictator
Rafael Trujillo and its renewed popularity as an international music.
Using extensive interviews as well as written commentaries, Austerlitz
examines the historical and contemporary contexts in which merengue is
performed and danced, its symbolic significance, its social functions,
and its musical and choreographic structures. He tells the tale of
merengue's political functions, and of its class and racial
significance. He not only explores the various ethnic origins of this
Ibero-African art form, but points out how some Dominicans have tried to
deny its African roots.In today's global society, mass culture often
marks ethnic identity. Found throughout Dominican society, both at home
and abroad, merengue is the prime marker of Dominican identity. By
telling the story of this dance music, the author captures the meaning
of mass and folk expression in contemporary ethnicity as well as the
relationship between regional, national, and migrant culture and between
rural/regional and urban/mass culture. Austerlitz also traces the
impact of migration and global culture on the native music, itself
already a vibrant intermixture of home-grown merengue forms. From rural
folk idiom to transnational mass music, merengue has had a long and
colorful career. Its well-deserved popularity will make this book a must
read for anyone interested in contemporary music; its complex history
will make the book equally indispensable to anyone interested in
cultural studies. Paul Austerlitz is Assistant Professor of
Ethnomusicology at the University of Miami.
No comments:
Post a Comment