New York University in Buenos Aires Class Code: V95.9751002 / K.2094001002 the Multiple Faces of Tango: a Cultural Critique of Identity (English Section)

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New York University in Buenos Aires Class Code: V95.9751002 / K.2094001002 The multiple faces of tango: a cultural critique of identity (English Section)

Professor: Edgardo Dieleke August/December, 2010 Office hours: To be confirmed Mon and Thurs 3:30pm‐ 5pm Email: [email protected] Classroom: TBA

Course Description

When tango was born in Buenos Aires, in the second half of the XIX century, Argentina was going through major changes. With the arrival of millions of immigrants, the shape of the city and its society suffered an intense process of modernization. Tango, a product from the bordello considered a threat to national identity, came to be a global success in only twenty years. Acclaimed in Paris and New York, despite its origins, tango became a symbol for Argentina, in a process of negotiations and the control of sexuality and gender and class relations. In this sense, tango reveals itself to be a cultural product that condenses ‐beyond the richness of the music‐ many of the key debates regarding the relationships between culture and society. This course proposes, through the reading of tango lyrics, films and novels, a critical analysis of theoretical problems such as national identity, gender studies and the consumption of culture in a global era. The course will be divided in three parts a) The origins of tango and national identity b) Gender relations: from the forbidden brothels to the movies c) After‐tango: contemporary uses of tango. The course is organized in a format that combines lectures with a seminar‐style class, encouraging class discussions as well as different sights to the city, connected to tango. We will also invite guest speakers to offer special insights on the music and the dance, among other topics.

Papers and Exams

Three short essays/ reports (no longer than three pages, doubled‐spaced) are required during the term. In addition, a longer final paper (7‐10 pages, double‐spaced) is due on the last week of classes (December 13). Due dates are indicated on the syllabus. Note: Only hard copies. No papers will be accepted as email attachments. No late papers will be accepted.

There will be no mid‐term or final examination.

1 Grading

Students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation and written work. The final grade will be determined by the quality of class participation and by the assigned papers. The final grade includes:

Class participation: 15% Oral presentations (2): 15%

Short papers (3): 30% Final paper: 40%

Assessment Expectations

A: A student will receive a grade of A by producing excellent written and oral work that suggests attentive reading and preparation of assigned material, and that demonstrates a detailed familiarity with the texts. Also necessary to receive an A are the articulation of clever arguments based on solid evidence, the ability to engage critically with secondary reading material, and the fluent and articulate expression of ideas.

B: A student will receive a grade of B by producing written and oral work that is above satisfactory, and by demonstrating familiarity with the material under review.

C: To receive a grade of C, a student must demonstrate a basic understanding of the text under review, and must participate positively in the classroom. A C student’s written work may lack organization and appear random and disconnected at times, with occasional deviation from the paper’s main theme, and the writing itself may lack clarity.

D: A student who receives a grade of D makes little reference to the text other than what could be gleaned from an outline or a plot summary. The D student advances ideas that have insufficient relevance to the title; he or she writes simplistically, in a way that does not do justice to the text’s complexity; and his or her ideas are often carelessly expressed.

F: By making little or no reference to the text under review, deviating from or ignoring the title/ subject of the paper, writing poorly and ungrammatically, and indicating clearly the failure to read or understand the text, a student will receive a grade of F.

Grade Conversion

100‐93 A 76‐73 C 92‐90 A‐ 72‐70 C‐ 89‐87 B+ 69‐67 D+ 86‐83 B 66‐60 D

2 82‐80 B‐ 59‐0 F 79‐77 C+

Attendance Policy

 NYU Buenos Aires has a strict policy about course attendance. No unexcused absences are permitted.  Students should contact their class teachers to catch up on missed work but should NOT approach them for excused absences.  Absences due to illness must be discussed with the Assistant Director for Academics Affairs, María Pirovano Peña within one week of your return to class. A doctor note excusing your absence is mandatory. If students get sick on an exam day, they must let the Assistant Director for Academic Affairs know in advance about this, and they must see a doctor the same day in order to have their absence excursed.  Absence requests for non‐illness purposes must be discussed with the Assistant Director for Academics Affairs, María Pirovano Peña prior to the date(s) in question.  The first unexcused absence will be penalized by deducting 1.5% from the student’s final course mark. After that each unexcused absence will be penalized by deducting 3% from the student’s final course mark.  Students who have perfect attendance (100%) during the semester and have fulfilled all course requirements, i.e. class participation, meeting all deadlines, etc. will get extra points equivalent to 2 % of the final grade.  Students are responsible for making up any work missed due to absence.  NYU BA. also expects students to arrive to class promptly (both at the beginning and after any breaks) and to remain for the duration of the class. Three late arrivals or earlier departures (10 minutes after the starting time or before the ending time) will be considered one absence.  Each class has a duration of one hour and half.  Please note that for classes involving a field trip or other external visit, transportation difficulties are never grounds for an excused absence. It is the student’s responsibility to arrive at an agreed meeting point in a punctual and timely fashion.  Holidays’ make up classes are mandatory as regular scheduled classes.

Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism: the presentation of another person’s words, ideas, judgment, images or data as though they were your own, whether intentionally or unintentionally, constitutes an act of plagiarism.

The Instructor will uphold NYU’s code of academic and personal conduct for all

3 instances of plagiarism. Please find this code in NYU policies at the NYU website.

Required Texts

The mandatory readings are detailed in the syllabus and are available in the Reading packet at Copies: centro de copiado, Av. Santa Fe 2653, loc. 3, Cap. Fed., tel. 4821 2127, [email protected]

Bibliography and supplemental texts

Adorno, Theodor. Philosophy of the New Music (Selection). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006. Adorno, Theodor. Some Ideas on the Sociology of Music. En Sound Figures. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999. Archetti, Eduardo P. Masculinities: Football, Polo and the Tango in Argentina. Oxfordshire: Berg Publishers, 1999. Aslan, Pablo. The Evolution of Tango Music (adapted from "Tango Stylistic Evolution and Innovation", UCLA Masters thesis, 1990). Bergero, Adriana. Intersecting tango: cultural geographies of Buenos Aires, 1900‐1930. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008. Borges, Jorge Luis. Evaristo Carriego. New York: Dutton, 1984. Bosi, Alfredo. “La parábola de las vanguardias latinoamericanas”. In: Schwarz 1990. Collier, Simon. “The Birth of Tango”. Gabriela Nouzeilles and Graciela Montaldo (eds.) The Argentina Reader. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. Comte, Mónica Gloria Hoss de le. The Tango. Buenos Aires, Maizal, 2003. Corradi, Juan E. “How Many did it take to Tango? Voyages of Urban Culture in the Early 1900s.” Outsider Art. England: Cambridge U Press, 1997. 194‐214. Farris Thompson, Robert. Tango: The Art History of Love. New York: Pantheon, 2005. Rafael Filipelli and Federico Monjeau, “How Sweet as Long as It Lasted”. ReVista. Harvard Review of Latin America, Fall 2007. Garramuño, Florencia. Modernidades primitivas: Tango, samba y nación. Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2007. ‐‐‐‐. “Tango, Samba, Modernity and Nation. It takes more than two”. ReVista. Harvard Review of Latin America, Fall 2007. ‐‐‐‐. (ed.) Tango. Una antología. Buenos Aires: Santillana, 1998. ‐‐‐‐. “Primitive Iconographies: tango and samba, images of the nation”. Jens Anderman and William Rowe (eds.), Iconographies of Power. London: Bergham Books, 2004. Molloy, Sylvia. “Memories of tango”. ReVista. Harvard Review of Latin America, Fall 2007. Sarlo, Beatriz. Borges, a writer on the edge. Verso: London, New York, 1993. Savigliano, Marta E.. Tango and the Political Economy of Passion. San Francisco: Westview Press, 1995.

Course Schedule

PART 1. The origins of tango and national identity

Week 1. August 30‐ Sept 2 Introducing the course. The origins of tango. The multiple faces of tango.

Collier, Simon. “The Birth of Tango”, in Gabriela Nouzeilles and Graciela Montaldo (eds.) The Argentina Reader. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. Mónica Gloria Hoss de le Comte, The tango.

Week 2. September 6‐ 9 Introducing tango (2). The analysis of culture and the study of identity. The stages of tango.

Raymond Williams. “The analysis of culture”. Pablo Aslan on music (internet). Robert Farris Thompson, “Tango as text”. Tango. The Art History of Love. New York: Pantheon Books, 2005.

Week 3. September 13‐16 Tango as dance. The changes in the dance, the milongas, interviewing tangueros.

Marta Savigliano on the dance: “From Wallflowers to femme fatales”. Guest speaker: Manuel González (tango teacher). Visit to a milonga. Optional reading: “Tango as dance” (in Robert Farris Thompson).

Week 4. September 20‐ 23 Tango, nationalism and modernity.

Benedict Anderson. Imagined communities. Introduction. Garramuño, F. “Tango, Samba, Modernity and Nation. It takes more than two”. ReVista. Harvard Review of Latin America, Fall 2007. Borges, Jorge Luis. “A history of the tango”, in Evaristo Carriego. New York: Dutton, 1984.

Week 5. September 27‐ 30 The urban identity and tango: the orillas, the conventillos and the lost city.

Borges, Jorge Luis. “Man of the pink corner”, in Collected Fictions. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Viking, 1998. Selection of Intersecting Tango, by Adriano Bergero.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ First paper due by Oct 4 ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

Week 6. October 4‐7 The sound of tango. Guest speaker: Matilde Vitullo (Director of the Orquesta típica Imperial) Robert Farris Thompson, “Tango as music” Visit to a tango concert (TBA)

SPRING BREAK

SECOND PART. Gender relations: from the forbidden brothels to the movies

Week 7. October 18‐ 21. Prostitutes, homosexuals and ruffians: the control of sexuality at the turn of the century.

Judith Butler, “Bodily inscriptions, performative subversions”. Donna Guy. Selection. Optional reading: Toril Moi. “Feminist, female, feminine”.

Week 8‐9. October 25‐ 28/ November 1‐3 “Milonguitas, taitas, grelas and niños bien”. Defining gender relations in a modern city. Tango as an embrace of difference. The “cancionistas”, the femme‐ fatale and the ideas of love.

Marta Savigliano. “Tango as a spectacle of sex” Donna J. Guy. “Tango, Gender, and Politics”. Eduardo Archetti. “Masculinities”. Sylvia Molloy. “Memories of tango”. Guest speaker: Claudia Soria (USC‐ Universidad de Belgrano).

Week 10. November 8‐ 11. Films, stars and relationships.

Richard Dyer. “Heavenly bodies: Film stars and society” Simon Collier. “Gardel and the Cinema”. The figure of Carlos Gardel (film screening TBA).

Week 11. November 15‐ 18 Gender, mass culture and literature: the reverse of tango.

Puig, Manuel. Heartbreak tango.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Second paper due by Nov 22‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

THIRD PART. After‐Tango, Tango Nuevo and the contemporary uses of tango.

Week 12. November 22‐ 24 The changes in the music. From the golden age to Piazzolla. Rafael Filipelli and Federico Monjeau, “How Sweet as Long as It Lasted”. ReVista. Harvard Review of Latin America, Fall 2007. Guest speaker: Sergio Pujol (Universidad Nacional de La Plata) on Piazzolla.

Week 13‐14. November 29‐ Dec 2/ December 6‐ 9 Tango Nuevo, electronic tango and young orchestras: the revenge of tango? Redefining identity through tango: how does tango reflect “actual” Argentina? Tourism and tango: how to sell “argentine identity”? Local color in a global age. Images of an imagined past: tango in films today.

John Urry. “The tourist gaze”. Morgan Luker. “Tango renovación: On the uses of music history in Post‐Crisis Argentina” Guest speakers: young musicians from tango bands (TBA) Visit to a tango show. Film screening (The last applause)

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Third paper due by Dec 6 ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

Final paper due by the week of Dec 13.