Readers and Writers in Cuba

This study examines the evolution of Cuban literature and culture from its origins in the 19th century to the present. The early sections analyze the relationship between literary production and universities, the printing press, the abolitionist movement and the exile community from 1810 through the post-war years. Subsequent sections trace literary life from the 1920s to 1958, focusing on the links between writers, readers, and the institutions that supported literary endeavors in the Cuban Republic. The remaining chapters address Cuban literary culture from 1959 through the 1990s. This first thorough study of Cuban print culture after the 1959 revolution fills a large gap in Latin American studies with original research in archives and journals. Analysis of the relationship between literature and contemporary Cuban society is grounded in the earliest Cuban vernacular literature born in the Spanish colony and redefined in the process of nation-building in the first half of the 20th century. The book also surveys Cuban literary production in the current period of transition, confronting issues of globalization, fragmentation, and Cuba's adjustment to a post-Cold War world.

Pamela Maria Smorkaloff (Author)

Chapter 1. Toward the Twentieth Century: Literary Culture from Colonialism to Independence Chapter 2. Writing at the Turn of the Century: Printing Presses and Literary Circles Chapter 3. The Republic: 1900 to 1958 Chapter 4. The Cultural Policy of the Revolution and the Literary Sphere: An Overview Chapter 5. Readership and Revolution: Restructuring Print Culture Chapter 6. The Institutionalization of Literary Culture Chapter 7. The Golden Age of Revolutionary Publishing Chapter 8. Fin de Siecle: Literary Culture at the Crossroads