Poetry and Violence: The Ballad Tradition of Mexico's Costa Chica

By John H. McDowell

Book Overview

John H. McDowell provides an in-depth look at the Mexican ballad form known as the corrido, a body of poetry that draws from violence for its subject matter. Through interviews with male and female corrido composers and performers, plus a generous sampling of ballad texts, McDowell reveals a living vernacular tradition that chronicles local and regional rivalries and spawned the narcocorrido, ballads set in the drug trade and particularly popular along the Rio Grande border.

Detailed and rife with social and cultural implications, Poetry and Violence is a compelling commentary on violence as both human experience and communicative action.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252075625
• ISBN13: 9780252075629
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.0"