This talk elaborates on a theory of punk as a mode of aesthetic/material under-production in a context of extraordinary political risk, namely the Shining Path’s Maoist revolutionary proposal and the mass political violence that engulfed Peru during the 1980s. The emergence of punk in Lima, known locally as rock subterráneo, gave rise to a particular subcultural identity, the subte ("under"), a moniker that also took on a riskily ambiguous relation to the Marxist subversivo (“subversive”) in Peru’s armed conflict.  Ultimately, I discuss how Peruvian punk’s particular modes of under-production confronted a state that conflated punks with with political subversives and Maoist militants that saw punks as possibly allies but actually antagonists.

 

Bio:

Shane Greene is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University.  He writes and publishes on social movements, music, art, subculture, urbanism, race and culture. , His most recent book is titled Punk and Revolution, about the emergence of an underground arts and music scene during Peru’s war with the Maoist Shining Path.  He also plays in a bilingual rock band called El Cuervo Sucio. 

This lecture is sponsored by the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Music (CISM), the Department of Music, the Latin American and Iberian Studies Program (LAIS), and the Department of Anthropology.