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Though unjustly neglected by English-language audiences, Spanish film and television not only represent a remarkably influential and vibrant cultural industry; they are also a fertile site of innovation in the production of “transmedia” works that bridge narrative forms. In Spanish Lessons, Paul Julian Smith provides an engaging exploration of visual culture in an era of collapsing genre boundaries, accelerating technological change, and political-economic tumult. Whether generating new insights into the work of key figures like Pedro Almodóvar, comparing media depictions of Spain’s economic woes, or giving long-overdue critical attention to quality television series, Smith’s book is a consistently lively and accessible cultural investigation.
The huge international success of his latest feature, All About My Mother, has finally granted Pedro Almodovar the recognition he deserves, as the most artistically ambitious and commercially consistent film-maker in Europe.
With a devoted fan base and a host of awards?including a Peabody, a Golden Globe, and a People's Choice Award?Jane the Virgin (CW, 2014?19) remains one of the most well-known television shows of the 2010s in the US and abroad. Tracing the arc of the show's plot alongside its social context, scholar Paul Julian Smith unpacks the unique cultural phenomenon that was Jane the Virgin. Smith discusses the show's hybridity of genres, including romance, drama, and comedy, and its innovative narrative strategy as distinct strengths, making it an important precursor to comedies and dramas that followed. The show's hilarious, bright, soap opera?like portrayal of a Venezuelan American family and intentional engagement with themes of immigration, legal status, racism, and reproductive healthcare made it a palatable vehicle for progressive representations of the lived experiences of Latinx immigrants. Finally, the blending of the fictional and real-life personas of Gina Rodríguez (who played the protagonist, Jane) and her supporting cast marks the lasting impact the show had in television.
This book offers a radically new account of the rich and varied culture of contemporary Spain. It focuses on three intellectuals who chronicle contemporary life (including journalist Francisco Umbral); three filmmakers who engage with the many nationalisms of the Spanish state (Victor Erice,Bigas Luna, and Julio Medem); and three crucial topics that are expressed in many media (the replaying of history, the rise and fall of the city, and the practice of everyday life). Ranging from the ethnographic photography of Cristina Garcia Rodero to the high tech architecture of SantiagoCalatrava and from the hyperrealist painting of Antonio Lopez to the neo-flamenco dance of Joaquin Cortes, this book is also the first to draw on theorists of the intellectual field, the production of space, and the arts of bricolage (Pierre Bourdieu, Henri Lefebvre, and Michel de Certeau). Refutingthe charge that contemporary Spanish culture is trivial or superficial, this book argues that it is fully engaged in the aesthetic and historical project of modernity.
Studies the current artistic and industrial transformation of TV series in Mexico - the biggest and most dynamic Spanish-language market.
This book, Mexican Waves: Cinema, Television, Transmedia, explores the dynamic landscape of contemporary Mexican audiovisual storytelling, offering an in-depth examination of the works of influential filmmakers, television creators, and transmedia artists. By analyzing the convergence of these media, the book provides a comprehensive understanding of their evolution and socio-cultural impact. Key concepts include the interplay between cinema, television, and transmedia, with chapters dedicated to the works of renowned directors like Alejandro González Iñárritu and the rise of quality television series. The book also uncovers unexpected connections between art cinema and digital platforms ...
Gema Pérez-Sánchez argues that the process of political and cultural transition from dictatorship to democracy in Spain can be read allegorically as a shift from a dictatorship that followed a self-loathing "homosexual" model to a democracy that identified as a pluralized "queer" body. Focusing on the urban cultural phenomenon of la movida, she offers a sustained analysis of high queer culture, as represented by novels, along with an examination of low queer culture, as represented by comic books and films. Pérez-Sánchez shows that urban queer culture played a defining role in the cultural and political processes that helped to move Spain from a premodern, fascist military dictatorship to a late-capitalist, parliamentary democracy. The book highlights the contributions of women writers Ana María Moix and Cristina Peri Rossi, as well as comic book artists Ana Juan, Victoria Martos, Ana Miralles, and Asun Balzola. Its attention to women's cultural production functions as a counterpoint to its analysis of the works of such male writers as Juan Goytisolo and Eduardo Mendicutti, comic book artists Nazario, Rubén, and Luis Pérez Ortiz, and filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar.
'A value of the collection is its multiple trajectory, as commentary on the Cervantine corpus, on authorial and fictional psyches, and on the dialectical (hi)story of literature and psychoanalysis. The editors and their distinguished collaborators have produced a monumental work of scholarship.'--Choice In this venturesome collection, scholars representing a variety of approaches contribute fifteen essays that shed new light not only on the uses of psychoanalysis for reading Cervantes, but also on the relationship between Freud's reading of Cervantes in the summer of 1883 and the very foundation of psychoanalytic paradigms.
Argues that representations of the car crash in film genres from slapstick comedies to industrial-safety movies parallels the collision of film and other media.
Since the Catalan government passed the first of Spain's regional governmental laws on same-sex partnership in 1998, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer culture in Spain has thrived. Spanish Queer Cinema assesses the impact of this significant c