Abstract
The Introduction sets out the initial questions behind this project: “What are the functions of literature in Cuba and why has the post-1959 Cuban government prioritized literature?” It provides an outline of cultural policy approaches to literature in post-1959 Cuba, drawing on perspectives from development studies and cultural studies in order to illustrate the special status of literature as an instrument of individual/national development. It reviews the existing scholarship on Cuban literature since the Revolution, and indicates the gaps, misunderstandings, and ideological and critical fashions that predominate in the field. Lastly, it sets out the aims of this study: to study how literature functions in Cuban society, and to explore the complexities and tensions inherent in that process.
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Kumaraswami, P. (2016). Introduction: The Social Life of Literature in Contemporary Cuba: Negotiating Identity, Attaining Well-Being, and Surviving Social Change. In: The Social Life of Literature in Revolutionary Cuba. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55940-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55940-1_1
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