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JAN SVERRE KNUDSEN. Those that Fly without Wings: Music and Dance in a Chilean Immigrant Community. Oslo: Unipub AS/Oslo Academic Press, 2006. 234 pp. ISBN: 8274772423.
Jan Sverre Knudsen's study comes out of his own doctoral dissertation from the University of Oslo, Faculty of Arts, Department of Music and Theater, 2004, and is written predominantly in English. The text consists of nine chapters, notes, black-and-white reprints of photos of research participants, a number of graphs, quotes from research participants in English and either Spanish or Norwegian, a glossary of Chilean terms, references, and four appendices, one in Spanish and three in Norwegian, pointing to Knudsen's attempt to include potential readers for whom those languages are primary. Knudsen presents the main subject of the book in the first chapter: the role of music and dance activity in the "negotiation and construction of immigrant identity" (1), in particular relating to the Casa de Cultura, founded by Chilean immigrants in Oslo in 1994. He is interested in the ways in which participants at the Casa de Cultura construct meaning in relation to music and dance and the complexities surrounding identity for first- and second-generation Chileans in the increasingly multicultural Oslo.
In Chapter 2, Knudsen discusses his approach to research and his natural tendency toward a social constructionist theory. Chapter 3 discloses his research methodology, which I found to be freshly self-reflective. He states:
The "researcher's gaze" is concentrated upon the actors: their actions and experiences, their reflections and interpretations. At the same time I recognize my own influence on the research process and the significance of my personal background. I regard the construction of knowledge as an interactive process, taking place between the researcher and the research participant (3).
Chapter 4 paints a requisite historical picture of Chilean music as it is understood in the Chilean immigrant community in Oslo, breaking it down into four groups: música andina, folkfore criollo, canción comprometida (committed or political song), and música tropical.
Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 make up the meat of this study. Chapter 5 gives a history of the Chilean community in Oslo, discussing the start of the Casa de Cultura, and statistical material regarding migration from Chile in two separate waves: first, a political wave of...