Never late
Unwelcome desires and diasporas in Chavela Vargas' last works
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4517273 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lorena Alvarado (Northwestern University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 17-35 |
| Publication date | 2016-01-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Women & Performance a journal of feminist theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0740-770X • E-ISSN: 1748-5819 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0740770x.2016.1183976 |
| OpenAlex | W2464751690 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
Theodor Adorno, and Edward Said after him, theorized late style as a discrepant musical orientation at odds with what is expected, desired, or current. Late work is musical work formulated by an older subject that refuses to retire quietly and with docility. While Adorno and Said discuss Classical-period music, the author is interested in engaging this concept in thinking about the recalcitrant rancheras and boleros of a lesbian, migrant, and aged musical performer of the early twenty-first century, Chavela Vargas (1919–2012). She examines a couple of Vargas’ last works, Cupaima (2006) and ¡Por mi |Culpa! (2010), paying particular attention to how her aesthetic choices continue to de-form the classic repertoire of rancheras and boleros. The entwining of beloved, familiar lyrics and melodies with details that recall invisible and hyper-visible subjects, namely migrants and indigenous communities, result in unexpected, repellent musicality. Inspired by feminist and queer theory, the author examines how her later body of work conveys an unbearable sonic assessment of contemporary struggles of those unwelcome, despised, and outside neo-liberal chronology
Aesthetics · Art · Indigenous · Literature · Lyrics · Melody · Musical · Performing arts · Queer · Sociology · Cuban History and Society · Gender Studies · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Music History and Culture
| Highly cited | No |
|---|