Memory and Modernity: Popular Culture in Latin America

by William Rowe, Vivian Schelling

Samba and carnival, radio soaps and telenovelas, oral poetry, popular drama, Amerindian art. This illustrated overview of Latin America’s popular culture considers the broad spectrum of cultural forms in the various countries of the subcontinent.

Exploring the ways in which daily life and ritual have resisted and been influenced by Western mass culture, Memory and Modernity  traces the main anthropological, sociological and political debates about the nature of popular culture. Rowe and Schelling use their analysis of the development of a culture industry in Latin America to engage with wider debates about modernity, drawing out the contrast between Latin America’s cultural wealth and its widespread material poverty.

In challenging the assumptions of much Western cultural criticism, this book will be essential reading for students of Latin American society, while offering the general reader a concise and accessible overview of an exciting and varied popular culture.

264 pages, Paperback

First published August 17, 1991

Reviews

[Javier Ponce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book knows where it stands in respect of Latin American Popular Culture. It knows also how to use the canon and delivers some great analysis of specific cultural artifacts form Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and more. It's a little about everything, too: music, literature, radio, TV, art, etc.

[Raul Alonzo Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic overview and really compelling arguments. I'd love to read something encompassing the transformations of the last 30 years, as well.