Jos Mart Images of Memory and Mourning [Hardcover]

This book is a critical study of visual representations of Jos? Mart? The National Hero of Cuba , and the discourses of power that make it possible for Mart?'s images to be perceived as icons today. It argues that an observer of Mart?'s icons who is immersed in the Cuban national narrative experiences a retrospective reconstruction of those images by means of ideologically formed national discourses of power. Also, the obsessive reproduction of Mart?'s icons signals a melancholia for the loss of the martyr-hero. But instead of attempting to forget Mart?, the book concludes that the utopian impulse of his memory should serve to resist melancholia and to visualize new forms of creative re-significations of Mart? and, by extension, the nation.Gaze, Intentionality, and Manipulation  Battling for the National Icon  The Filming of a Memory  Melancholia for Mart? Afterthoughts: Resisting Cuban Melancholia

An astute and balanced analysis. - The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History

The figure of Jos? Mart? has seduced several generations of Cubans of various ideological persuasions, both on the island and in the diaspora. In this thought-provoking and tightly argued tour de force, Emilio Bejel insightfully interprets and subverts the fascination with Mart?'s iconography in dominant discourses of Cuban national identity. - Jorge Duany, director, Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University

Bejel takes us on a historical journey through the complex visual representations of one of Latin America's most revered heroes. Rigorously researched, theoretically sophisticated, this groundbreaking book will certainly remain as an authorative and persuasive study of Marti's iconicity in relation to state power and ideology. A must-read. - Leopoldo M. Bernucci, Russell F. and Jean H. Fiddyment Chair in Latin American Studies, University of California, Davis

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