The Social Life of Literature in Revolutionary Cuba

Par Kumaraswami is Associate Professor in Latin American Cultural Studies at the University of Reading, UK. She has published extensively on Cuban cultural policy and practice, including her monograph Literary Culture in Cuba: Revolution, Nation-building and the Book (2012), co-authored with Antoni Kapcia. 

Introduction The social life of literature in contemporary Cuba: Negotiating identity, attaining well-being, surviving social change.-.Chapter One Culture, identity and well-being: Reviewing the possibilities.-.Chapter 2 Social change, cultural policy and the functions of literature: Understanding culture and revolution in Cuba, 1959-1989.-.Chapter 3 “La cultura es lo primero que hay que salvar”: Writers, literature and well-being in the Período Especial, 1990-2000.-.Chapter 4 “La cosa esta que vino después”: Reading testimonial literature, well-being and narrative during the Batalla de Ideas, 2000-2007.-.Chapter 5 Subjective well-being and culture as everyday practice in contemporary Cuba, 2007-2012.-.Conclusion The promise of well-being through culture in contemporary Cuba: Morality, culture and the market. 

“The Social Life of Literature in Revolutionary Cuba provides a noteworthy discussion of recent Cuban cultural production and everyday life. Responding to economic, political and social changes, Cuban culture at this time acutely highlights the relationship between social well-being and cultural participation. Kumaraswami’s book will be of value to scholars seeking a timely interdisciplinary analysis of Cuban culture during the first two decades of the twenty-first century.” (Erin s. Finzer, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Vol. 98 (07), 2018)