Estrategias intermediales en la producción cultural cubana contemporánea.

Abstract

The present dissertation focuses on the Cuban aesthetic cultural production (cinema, visual arts, performance and literature) of the last 15 years through an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that draws on theories of intermediality and transmedia narratives, and also of archive and memory studies. Through the analysis of intermedia strategies adopted by a selected group of artists it is possible to understand the complex socio-cultural dynamic of contemporary Cuba, when many changes are taking place both inside and outside the Island. I claim that the impact of new media and technologies generates new modes of social and political representation and makes possible the production and distribution of artistic creations outside the institutional framework, loosening somewhat the effectiveness of government’s surveillance and censorship. Therefore, an ‘alternative’ cultural production, essentially critical, becomes more global and visible outside the confines of the island, and a closer relationship is established between Cubans and the Cuban diaspora. This necessarily generates an impact on the way in which power perceives itself and how it is perceived by the rest of the world.