Title Spectacular modernity : dictatorship, space, and visuality in Venezuela, 1948-1958 / Lisa Blackmore

Published Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2017] ©2017

Click on the following:
EBSCO eBooks

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xii, 268 pages) : illustrations Series Illuminations : cultural formations of the Americas series Illuminations (Pittsburgh, Pa.) Contents Introduction: Rethinking the Politics and Aesthetics of Modernity -- Part I. Official Libretto -- Telling Stories : The Historiographical Foundations of Military Rule -- Ruling Ideology : Radical Transformations of Space and Body -- Part II. Setting the Scene -- Nation Branding : From Covert Propaganda to Corporate Publicity -- Spectacular Visuality : Enframing the Landscape, Training the Gaze -- Exhibiting Modernity : Cultures of Display and the Dictator's Visionary Gaze -- Part III. Performing Progress -- Subjects on Stage : Organized Walking in Scripted Spaces -- Bringing Progress Home : Modern Mythologies in Daily Life -- Epilogue: Specters of Spectacle Summary "In cultural history, the 1950s in Venezuela are commonly celebrated as a golden age of modernity, realized by a booming oil economy, dazzling modernist architecture, and nationwide modernization projects. But this is only half the story. In this path-breaking study, Lisa Blackmore reframes the concept of modernity as a complex cultural formation in which modern aesthetics became deeply entangled with authoritarian politics. Drawing on extensive archival research and presenting a wealth of previously unpublished visual materials, Blackmore revisits the decade-long dictatorship to unearth the spectacles of progress that offset repression and censorship. Analyses of a wide range of case studies--from housing projects to agricultural colonies, urban monuments to official exhibitions, and carnival processions to consumerculture--reveal the manifold apparatuses that mythologized visionary leadership, advocated technocratic development, and presented military rule as the only route to progress. Offering a sharp corrective to depoliticized accounts of the period, Spectacular Modernity instead exposes how Venezuelans were promised a radically transformed landscape in exchange for their democratic freedoms"-- Provided by publisher "An analysis of how a decade of military rule in Venezuela produced a dominant ideology of progress so meticulously crafted that to this day audacious Modernist art and architecture and dictatorship are conflated under the term 'modernity'"-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Spectacular, The -- Political aspects -- Venezuela -- History -- 20th century Architecture -- Political aspects -- Venezuela -- History -- 20th century Art -- Political aspects -- Venezuela -- History -- 20th century Modernism (Aesthetics) -- Political aspects -- Venezuela -- History -- 20th century Social change -- Venezuela -- History -- 20th century Military government -- Social aspects -- Venezuela -- History -- 20th century Dictatorship -- Social aspects -- Venezuela -- History -- 20th century ART -- Criticism & Theory. ARCHITECTURE -- Criticism. HISTORY -- Latin America -- South America. Architecture -- Political aspects Art -- Political aspects Cultural policy Politics and government Social change SUBJECT Venezuela -- Politics and government -- 1935-1958. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85142688 Venezuela -- Cultural policy Subject Venezuela Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780822982364 0822982366

  Permalink