The Revolution's Echoes: Music, Politics and Pleasure in Guinea

FAIN: FA-252319-17

Nomi Dave
University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA 22903-4833)

A book-length study of Guinean music in relation to politics.

An NEH fellowship will support completion of my book, The Revolution’s Echoes: Music, Politics and Pleasure in Guinea (solicited by University of Chicago Press). The book examines the pleasures and aesthetics of authoritarianism, through an ethnographic study of music and performance in Guinea. Representations in the scholarly and popular literature often emphasize music as a site for resistance and oppositional politics, while musicians who support the state are framed as unwitting tools of propaganda. Moving beyond these assumptions, my book examines the subjectivities and experiences of musicians who sing for an authoritarian state, and of audiences who derive pleasure from this music. The book offers new theorizations of pleasure and its relationship to politics. It will be the first English-language volume on Guinean music, and contributes to broader conversation in the social sciences and humanities on emotion, sound and the senses in constituting political / public culture.

Associated Products

The Revolution's Echoes: Music, Politics & Pleasure in Guinea (Book)
Title: The Revolution's Echoes: Music, Politics & Pleasure in Guinea
Abstract: This book examines the aesthetics of authoritarianism, through a study of music and performance in the Republic of Guinea. Music and musicians in Guinea have long engaged in deep-rooted practices of avoiding dissent and engaging in praise for the powerful. Across genres and generations, they often adopt cautious, conservative, and strategic positions towards the state, ranging from carefully constrained social commentary to lavish praise. Moreover, it is musicians and audiences, rather than government officials, who maintain the relevance and popularity of these forms. The Revolution’s Echoes examines the choices and subjectivities of musicians who sing for an authoritarian state, and the experiences and desires of audiences who derive great pleasure from this music.
Year: 2019
Type: Single author monograph

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