Description
Book SynopsisTango Lessons is an interdisciplinary collection of essays examining the many varied perspectives that tango provides on Argentina's social, cultural, and intellectual history from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first.
Trade Review"Tango is unique in Argentine history. More than a national music and dance, it has been considered the defining icon of Buenos Aires and of Argentina's vibrant cultural history. Yet, despite its notoriety, scholarship on tango, especially in English, is surprisingly scant.
Tango Lessons makes an important contribution by bringing together in one volume profoundly original essays investigating tango as a multifaceted cultural form."
—Florencia Garramuño, author of
Primitive Modernities: Tango, Samba, and Nation"Until now, scholars have known little about the social, cultural, and economic aspects of contemporary tango. This collection brings tango scholarship up to date. Deeply involved in the contemporary tango scene, contributors convey a broad and timely appreciation of tango as a dance, a musical genre, a type of lyrical song, a historical archive, and a cultural form that is alive and evolving."
—Arlene Dávila, author of
Culture Works: Space, Value, and Mobility across the Neoliberal Americas“This is a book to read carefully and to savor for each essay's distinctive take on the contemporary tango…. It is impossible in a brief review to do justice to such a varied collection of essays… [T]his is a solid and diverse collection, and the detailed and highly informative footnotes further embellish the essays. Even those readers who are well versed in tango history will learn a great deal from
Tango Lessons.” -- Deborah Jakubs * Hispanic American Historical Review *
"[T]he volume is to be commended for its consistent quality of prose and strength of analysis across contributions, especially given the international makeup and disciplinary diversity of the authors. The range of topics, methods, disciplinary perspectives, and regional voices provides a rich tapestry of content that in the hands of a lesser editor might suffer from a lack of coherence or conformity." -- Joanna Bosse * Ethnomusicology *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction / Marilyn G. Miller
1.
Lunfardo in Tango: A Way of Speaking that Defines a Way of Being / Oscar Conde
2. Borges, Tango, and Milonga / Alejandro Susti
3. Picturing Tango / Marilyn G. Miller
4. Tango, Politics, and the Musical of Exile / Antonio Gómez
5. The Return of the Tango in Documentary Film / Fernando Rosenberg
6. "Manejame como un auto": Drive Me Like a Car, or What's So New about
Tango Nuevo? / Carolyn Merritt
7. Contemporary Tango and the Cultural Politics of
Música Popula / Morgan James Luker
8. Gotan Project's Tango Project / Esteban Buch
Contributors and Translators
Glossary
Notes
Works Cited
Index
