Low and High Art: Poetics, Nostalgia and Cultural Memory
Subject Area
Hispanic Caribbean Studies
Abstract
I propose an analysis of Tego Calderon’s selected songs from Abayarde and El que sabe sabe along with references to The Brief and Wondrous Life (Díaz 2007) and The Get Down (2016) to develop my arguments on how the notion of collective and cultural memory and nostalgia are represented outside of the literary genre such as Reggaeton and Hip-Hop. I study the juncture of high and low art, between literature and Latino Street poetry as a space from which social, and historical representations of collective and cultural memory and nostalgia emerge. I discuss the changing setting of collective and cultural memory and nostalgia in response to globalization, cultural struggles and concerns that originate from the diasporic movements between Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and the United States. Within this context, I employ Juan Flores’s (2000), Suman Gupta’s (2009) and Kansteiner’s (2006) theories to discuss how American-Caribbean history, progress, Latino Hip-Hop culture and pop-culture have shaped ways in which Tego Calderon and Diaz explore (afro) Latino/a identity, culture and belonging.
Brief Bio Note
Lukasz D. Pawelek is an Assistant Professor of Spanish and German in the Department of Humanities at University of South Carolina Beaufort. His research interests involve U.S. Latino and Caribbean literature, collective memory, literary and psychological representations of nostalgia, acculturation and diasporic movements between Caribbean and the United States.
Keywords
Cultural Identity, Reggaeton, Globalization, Diaspora, Afro-Latino
Location
Room 210
Presentation Year
2018
Start Date
4-6-2018 4:25 PM
Embargo
10-21-2017
Recommended Citation
Pawelek, Lukasz D., "Low and High Art: Poetics, Nostalgia and Cultural Memory" (2018). South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL). 47.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/seccll/2018/2018/47
Low and High Art: Poetics, Nostalgia and Cultural Memory
Room 210
I propose an analysis of Tego Calderon’s selected songs from Abayarde and El que sabe sabe along with references to The Brief and Wondrous Life (Díaz 2007) and The Get Down (2016) to develop my arguments on how the notion of collective and cultural memory and nostalgia are represented outside of the literary genre such as Reggaeton and Hip-Hop. I study the juncture of high and low art, between literature and Latino Street poetry as a space from which social, and historical representations of collective and cultural memory and nostalgia emerge. I discuss the changing setting of collective and cultural memory and nostalgia in response to globalization, cultural struggles and concerns that originate from the diasporic movements between Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and the United States. Within this context, I employ Juan Flores’s (2000), Suman Gupta’s (2009) and Kansteiner’s (2006) theories to discuss how American-Caribbean history, progress, Latino Hip-Hop culture and pop-culture have shaped ways in which Tego Calderon and Diaz explore (afro) Latino/a identity, culture and belonging.
