ANNE BIRKENMAIER, ESHTER WHITFIELD (EDS.): Havana Beyond the Ruins: Cultural Mappings after 1989. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011.

Abstract

Scholars of Cuba are constantly trying, and failing, to escape Havana. Eventsand sources based in the capital too often substitute for knowledge of the islandas a whole. From this point of view, Anne Birkenmaier and Esther Whitfield’sedited collection Havana Beyond the Ruins might be accused of adding anotherHavana-centric entry to an already Havana-centric scholarly corpus. And yet,rather than simply mining the city, its people, and its archives for the storiesthey tell about the nation, the contributors to this impressive volume endeavorto re-particularize the capital, taking the physical, lived, and imagined spacesof urban life as their subject of inquiry, as texts to be read.