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The devil is a defiant, nefarious figure, the emblem of evil, and
harbinger of the damned. However, the festive devil--the devil that
dances--turns the most hideous acts into playful transgressions."
Festive Devils of the Americas" is the first volume to present a
transnational and performance-centered approach to this
fascinating, feared, and revered character of fiestas, street
festivals, and carnivals in North, Central, and South America. As
produced and performed in both rural and urban communities and
among neighborhood groups and councils, festive devils challenge
the principles of colonialism and nation-states reliant on the
straight and narrow opposition between good and evil, black and
white, and us and them.
Each section of this volume opens with regional maps ranging from
the Andes, Afro-Atlantic, and Caribbean, to Central and North
America. However, festive devils defy geographical as well as moral
boundaries. From Brazil's Candomble to New Mexico's dance halls,
festive devils and their stories sustain and transform ancestral
memory, recast historical narratives, and present political,
social, and cultural alternatives in many guises. Within economic,
political, and religious cross-currents, these paradoxical figures
affirm the spirit of community within the framework of subversion
and inversion found at the heart of the festival world.
Populism and Performance in the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela
is an innovative examination of how supporters of Venezuelan
president Hugo Chavez engaged in performance practice to build and
negotiate the terms of populism. In Angela Marino's analysis
populism is the practice of politics by ordinary people, which may
include a variety of behaviors and forms of cultural production in
live events, media, and the built environment. Beginning with
populism as an embodied act, Marino draws attention to cultural
performance, storytelling, theater, dance, film, and visual art to
suggest that the populism of Venezuela's emergent socialism reached
its fullest expression in face-to-face live performance. Focusing
on performances involving the devil, a figure frequently depicted
in Venezuelan popular culture, she demonstrates that performance
became a vehicle through which cultural producers negotiated
boundaries of inclusion and exclusion in ways that overcame the
simplistic logic of good versus evil, us versus them. She then
argues that the politics of the devil dances resurfaced in theater,
film, and other media both to antagonize and to unify social
movements against dictatorship and neoliberalism. The result is a
nuanced insight to the process of political mobilization during
times of monumental change. By foregrounding the repertoires of
populism, this book brings attention to voices that have been
erased or left out of view by global media. Both capturing a vital
record of the movement and providing valuable insights into its
internal dynamics, Populism and Performance will interest readers
in Latin American politics and political science, cultural studies,
and performance studies.
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