Post-Franco, Postmodern: The Films of Pedro Almodovar

(Hardback)

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The films of Pedro Almodovar have demonstrated great cross-over appeal in their ability to attract both mainstream and marginal audiences and to command critical as well as commercial success. This volume seeks to analyse the multiple contexts of Almodovar's international success. It offers a corrective to the glib approaches to discussions of Almodovar's work, which have seen it either as the latest contribution to the travel poster image of "romantic Spain", or as historical joyrides through the global pop culture scene. Drawing on disciplines that run from psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory, film and media studies, and cultural theory to the empirical study of audience response, the authors share a concern to illuminate the specifically Spanish context of the director's films. The book's main aim is to project contemporary Spain into the critical debate on the forms and functioning of postmodern culture and society.

Reviews

An important study of Almodovar and his widely acclaimed films. Each of the ten contributors carefully analyzes one or more of Almodovar films while engaging with current cultural debates. Rounding out this impressive volume are an intelligent introduction, two dozen photos, a filmography, and a bibliography highlighting the US critical reception of Almodovar's films. Theoretically sound and eminently readable, this work will appeal to scholars and aficionados alike. All academic libraries.-Choice
"An important study of Almodovar and his widely acclaimed films. Each of the ten contributors carefully analyzes one or more of Almodovar films while engaging with current cultural debates. Rounding out this impressive volume are an intelligent introduction, two dozen photos, a filmography, and a bibliography highlighting the US critical reception of Almodovar's films. Theoretically sound and eminently readable, this work will appeal to scholars and aficionados alike. All academic libraries."-Choice

Author Bio

KATHLEEN M. VERNON is Assistant Professor in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literature at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. She is the editor of Juan Benet (1986) and The Spanish Civil War and the Visual Arts (1990), and the author of numerous articles on contemporary Spanish and Latin American literature and film in journals such as Film Quarterly, Film and History, La Torre, Hispania, and Revista de Estudios Hispanicos. She is currently completing a study of the representation of memory and history in post-civil war Spanish narrative, novel and film. BARBARA MORRIS is an independent scholar working on contemporary Spanish film and literature. She is the author of essays in Chicago Review, Critical Inquiry, Letras Peninsulares, Revista de Estudios Hispanicos, Espana Contemporanea, and Anales de la Literatura Espanola Contemporanea. She is currently writing a book on configurations of gender in post-Franco Spanish cinema.