کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
934937 | 923723 | 2007 | 13 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
This article analyzes the dialogic play of temporalities and voices in a series of solo autobiographical cassettes recorded by Rodolfo Garcia, a former tent show comedian from San Antonio, Texas, on his home stereo between 1990 and 2000. Made while I was interviewing Mr. Garcia about his World War II-era career in show business, these recordings represent a rare intervention by a research ‘consultant’ in the ethnographic process. On the tapes, Mr. Garcia alternates between telling stories from his life and career, performing material from his repertoire as a comedian, and singing karaoke-like over a recording of the music of the Mexican singer and composer Agustin Lara. During instrumental breaks, he performs a conversation among three characters distinguished by different vocal timbres whose creative deixis reframes the mechanically reproduced music as a ‘live’ performance in a fictitious nightclub. In the relajo, Mr. Garcia moves almost entirely away from a denotationally explicit mode of representing the past and nearly abandons the idea of producing a self-contained, fully intelligible statement in favor of a somewhat opaque reenactment. Ostensibly a demonstration of his comic act, the relajo also incorporates material from his more recent past, bringing personal traumas and disappointments that he could not narrate explicitly into the autobiographical statement.
Journal: Language & Communication - Volume 27, Issue 3, July 2007, Pages 278–290