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Books by Franco Barrionuevo Anzaldi

Since its origin in the mid of the 19th century the history of tango has been intimately interwov... more Since its origin in the mid of the 19th century the history of tango has been intimately interwoven with the history of the argentine nation. Tango was the preeminent cultural ingredient of the overall argentine nation building process. However, this process was not self-sufficient but dependent on a postcolonial context. Parallel to the consolidation of the nation state and to its uneven material integration into a world economy tango has become the cultural representation of this emerging postcolonial Argentina. An imperialist circulation of feelings gave rise to tango as an “emotional capital”. By this, tango has been continuously reified as an “exotic”, “wild”, “primitive” and, particularly, “passionate” commodity that has located Argentina culturally in the world order of the 20th century. Behind the seemingly harmless claim of cultural “authenticity” a fervor struggle over national identity arose.

This postcolonial history of nationalism and tango is the point of departure of this book. It questions the overall nationalization strategies of tango. Though there is a substantial literature on this topic, there are no systematic analyses of the historiography of the tango. Tango is not only dance, music and poetry but it is also a knowledge of its history; a narrative of its origins, its heroes, its dramas and its places. This historiography of tango reaffirms tango as a national culture. It tells the story of the immigration, of the brothels, of the misery of the south of Buenos Aires and of their ambivalent heroes.

A very important part of this knowledge has been produced by argentine intellectuals between 1955 and 1973. During this time an immense amount of tango related books have been published in Argentina. Though Tango has always been a controversial topic in the argentine intellectual field, it was not before 1955 that it has become an outstanding subject. Very important intellectuals such as Ernesto Sabato and Jorge Luis Borges have written about the history of tango to that time. And some classical tango works such as “La ciudad del tango” of Blas Matamoro or “Tango: su historia y evolución” of Horacio Ferrer has been published. The tango history became a prime concern within the argentine intellectual field.

How can we make sense of this intellectual production between 1955 and 1973? This book tries to answer this question and to understand the specificity of the emergence of the historiography of tango. By this, this book takes a discourse analysis approach inspired by the “Archeology of Knowledge” of Michel Foucault. The historiography of tango is treated conceptually as a “discourse” that has emerged within a broader historical context. In terms of Foucault the concept of discourse is not equivalent to its underlying texts. A discourse has a rationale of its own, which transcends the narrative coherence of the texts. This rationale is the constructivist logic of sense-making and has to be isolated from the text. Therefore, the intellectual tango discourse is not the starting point but rather the aim of the analysis. The textual corpus of this discourse analysis consists of 63 Tango books published during 1955 and 1973 in Argentina.

The main argument of this book is that the historiography of tango is a product and a medium of the political polarization between peronism and anti-peronism of that time. The intellectual production and consumption of a historiography of tango can be read as an anti-hemonic strategy to reify in the public realm a leftist oriented peronist subject. This cultural production was an attempt of political resistance against the anti-peronist regimes. By drawing on a history of tango, a discourse about the “authentic” argentine nation could be re-habilitated.

Since peronism was excluded from the political participation after the forced exile of Juán Domingo Perón in 1955, the cultural realm seemed to be a preeminent place for a peronist engagement. But peronism was not an already pre-established ideology. On the contrary, the very definition of
peronism itself was at stake. As Federico Neiburg has once argued, after the exile of the Líder the significance of peronism was continuously re-invented and negotiated. Peronism became an “empty signifier” for the national subject. Argentine intellectuals were the prime actors of these reinventions. While the mayor part of the intellectual field was formerly anti-peronist, this overall
political orientation changed after the exile. Simultaneously to the praxis of re-invention, the intellectual field became more affined to peronism. This is not to say that intellectuals were peronists, but their discourses became more integrated into the “empty signifier” of peronism.

As this book tries to demonstrate the historiography of tango was part of this intellectual praxis of invention. The history of tango is told as a de-colonizing counter culture narrative of a liberal and an anti-peronist Argentina. Different discursive strategies can be reconstructed: In first instance, the narrator of the history of tango presents himself as an “anti-intellectual”. He criticizes the argentine intellectuals for being “Europeanized”, i.e. for gazing on Argentina, as if they were located in the countries of the north. The argentine intellectuals are discursively constructed as members of the argentine oligarchy. Second, the origins of tango are dated back to 1880. This is right the year, when the argentine state was consolidated by the conservative party “Partido Autonomista Nacional” (PAN). In contrast to the perspective of a liberal historiography, the consolidation of the state and the integration of Argentina as agro-exporting country into the world economy is not seen by the tango historiography as a glorious marker of independence, but as a sign of a postcolonial connoted uneven development. By this, tango is seen not as a simple fairy tale of a pre-modern Argentina, but as the social heterotopia of the modernizing nation. For example, the “compadrito”, the main hero of
the tango world, is not interpreted as a lazy and morally dubious character, but as a worker that was forced to immorality due to his precarious social conditions. Third, the historiography of tango served as a contemporary critique to the oligarchic mainstream culture that could be observable between
1955 and 1973. After the “Golden Age” of tango in the 1930ies, ‘40ies and in the early ‘50ies, tango almost disappeared as a cultural expression in Argentina. It was repressed by foreign, western music, which served more the consumption needs of the argentine middle class. This absence of tango was seen by the narrators of the historiography of tango as a sign of domination of the western, imperial
culture.

Finally, the overarching rationale of the intellectual discourse of the tango history was polarization. By polarizing the narrations about tango this discourse participated in the re-invention of peronism. Tango was socially constructed as the cultural basis of the political ideology of peronism.

This main argument of the discourse analysis is developed in six chapters. The first chapter is theoretical. It presents the relationship between nationalism, nation and intellectuals on a conceptual ground. The second chapter, works out the methodological approach of a Foucault
inspired discourse analysis. The third chapter presents a genealogy of the cultural production of tango within a historically changing intellectual field. The fourth chapter reconstructs the political and social conditions of the emergence of the historiography of tango. The fifth chapter analysis the
institutional context of the publishing houses of this emerging literature.
Finally, the historiography of tango is textually de- and reconstructed and integrated into the institutional and historical
postcolonial context of that time.

Papers by Franco Barrionuevo Anzaldi

This is a periodistic article that resumes the interrelationship between tango, intelectuals and ... more This is a periodistic article that resumes the interrelationship between tango, intelectuals and politics during the post-peronism era between 1955-1973 in Argentina.

In recent dance studies dance is sometimes seen as something inherently political. This trend has... more In recent dance studies dance is sometimes seen as something inherently political. This trend has been important insofar as it sensitized practitioners, theorists and government agents alike to reflect on dance in terms of power effects and of its implications for social order. However, the current emphasis of this term overestimates the genuine possibility of dance to act politically and soften the analytical force of the concept. Thus, this article examines the conceptual pitfalls of this term and argues for the application of the concept “politization”.

This article provides an interpretation of the new cultural dynamics of tango in Buenos Aires sin... more This article provides an interpretation of the new cultural dynamics of tango in Buenos Aires since the 1990ies. By this, it fills a gap in the literature of tango, which is primarily focussed on the historic but not on the contemporary cultural dynamics of tango. As it will be argued, the tango culture in Buenos Aires is nowadays intimately related to the recent phenomenon of international tourism. By this, the former popular tango culture transformed into a place-bounded, touristic “experience economy”.

This article analyzes the discourses of the tango historiographies that circulated within the arg... more This article analyzes the discourses of the tango historiographies that circulated within the argentine intelectual field during the 1960ies and 1970ies. It argues that theses cultural discourses were constitutive for the political struggles between peronism and anti-peronism.

Talks by Franco Barrionuevo Anzaldi

In this presentation it should be argued, that in european cities the visibility of "hybrid bodie... more In this presentation it should be argued, that in european cities the visibility of "hybrid bodies" is correlated with the invisibility of "migrant bodies". A reconstruction of Jacques Rancière's Theory of Democracy opens up the possibility, to formulate a citizenship concept, that allows to conceptualize the politics of the visibility and invisibility of ethnicized bodies.

In this presentation it will be argued, that the historiography of tango is interweaved with the ... more In this presentation it will be argued, that the historiography of tango is interweaved with the formation of a peronist ideology. Most of the knowledge of tango history has been formulated between 1955 and 1973 by leftist intellectuals. The historiography of Tango- so the argument of here- has been reinvented as a cultural icon of peronism.

This is an overview lecture of the political identity formation in the history of tango. The fram... more This is an overview lecture of the political identity formation in the history of tango. The frame is constituted by the condition of postcolonialism. Tango - so it will be argued- always oscillated between the reaffirmation and the subversion of postcolonialism strategies.