The Latin American Urban Crnica: Between Literature and Mass Culture

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The Latin American Urban Crnica explores the fluid relationship between high and low culture in Latin America. Paying attention to the peculiar development of the cultural fields in Latin America and to the consequences of present processes of globalization, Esperana Bielsa examines the contemporary crnica in Mexico City and Guayaquil and its role in representing unofficial culture in its widest sense. This unique work is the product of the study of numerous texts and interviews with the main writers of crnica and also incorporates extensive research on reception.
Essentially interdisciplinary in its approach, The Latin American Urban Crnica is one of the very few publications about this fascinating and understudied mixed genre of the area between journalism and literature, and the first to systematically situate the Latin American crnica within social and cultural theory.

Reviews

Bielsa's exploration of the crnicaa unique genre in Latin American culture - both literature and commentary on everyday lifeis outstanding. Her lucid description of crnica writers, in particular of how Martillo and Perez Cruz lend a voice to the hidden histories of the cities of Guayquil and Mexico city is beautifully interwoven with a thorough and illuminating analysis of the rich heterogeneity of Latin American culture. This book will appeal to all those interested in the unique mixture of cultures and identities in Latin America. -- Vivian Schelling, University of East London
The text is an exceptional tool for any reader, providing a wealth of information for the non-specialist, and a sound review and analysis of chronicles and chronicle readership for the literary critic. Bielsa carries out a fine exploration of the urban crnica in seven chapters, which range from the high and low culture debates to individual analyses of crnicas appearing in the press of contemporary Guayaquil and Mexico City, and which conclude with a discussion of how crnica readership is distinguished today. -- 2007 * H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online *
Esperana Bielsa's study captures the richness of the literature of flanerie in contemporary Latin America through her original and imaginative exploration of the cronicas in the metropolitan contexts of Mexico City and Guayaguil. Drawing theoretical impulses from Benjamin, Bourdieu and others, her study illuminates for us a literature devoted to neglected aspects of reading, writing, and mapping the city in 'journalistic' forms that defy the distinction between 'high' and 'low' culture. Should be essential reading for all who are interested in the literature of urban modernity. -- David Frisby, London School of Economics

Author Bio

Esperana Bielsa is research fellow at the Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Warwick.