Fedor Pellmann – Tango, Rebellion am Nullpunkt

Fedor Pellmann

Tango, Rebellion am Nullpunkt – Eine globale existenzielle Grenzerfahrung

 
524 Seiten, Softcover, 2021, in german language

524 pages, 1513 notes, 846 references, 149 euros - a dissertation for the award of a doctorate in Spanish literature. The book does not disappoint the expectation that it will make a substantial contribution to the cultural history of tango simply because of its size and promising chapter titles.
Although Pellmann quotes the beginning of the UNESCO text on the occasion of the inclusion of tango in the list of intangible world cultural heritage in 2009, he consistently avoids the mere repetition of stereotypical tango stories and clichés.

It is astonishing that anyone who starts reading anywhere in the book will immediately get stuck on many of the topics. It may be a scholarly work, but Pellmann develops his explanations elegantly, charmingly, plausibly and mostly comprehensibly. From this point of view, the work can be considered to have literary quality.
(With 'Rebellion at Point Zero' in the title of his work, Pellmann refers to the streams of immigrants from the Old World who were literally stranded in the peripheral modernity of Buenos Aires in the course of the great catastrophes of the 20th century and found themselves there at the low point of existence, the ambivalent 'Point Zero').
(Detailed review by Peter Mötteli & Monika Schumacher in Tangodanza 97 - 1.2024)