
Post-Franco, Postmodern
The Films of Pedro Almodovar
Praeger Publishers Inc
Published on 16. January 1995
Book
Hardback
232 pages
978-0-313-29245-3 (ISBN)
Description
The films of Pedro Almodovar have demonstrated great crossover appeal in their ability to attract both mainstream and marginal audiences and to command critical as well as commercial success. The contributors to this anthology of critical essays seek, through close readings of the director's 10 feature films, to analyze the multiple contexts of Almodovar's phenomenal international success. This volume offers a corrective to the glib approaches that have dominated previous discussions of Almodovar's films, which have treated them, on the one hand, as simply the latest contribution to the travel poster image of passionate, romantic Spain, or, on the other, as historical joyrides through the global pop culture scene. As the first comprehensive study of Almodovar's cinema to be published in North America, the book is also noteworthy for the range of critical and theoretical methodologies that the contributors bring to the study of his works. Drawing upon disciplines that run from psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory, film and media studies, and cultural theory to the empirical study of audience response, the authors nevertheless share a concern to illuminate the specifically Spanish context of the director's films. While this volume serves the important function of introducing American audiences to post-Franco Spanish culture, it also pursues the complementary goal of projecting contemporary Spain into the critical debate on the forms and functioning of postmodern culture and society.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Interest Age: From 7 to 17 years
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
514 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-313-29245-3 (9780313292453)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
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.
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.
Content
Preface
Introduction: Pedro Almodovar, Postmodern Auteur by Kathleen M. Vernon and Barbara Morris
Pepi, Luci, Bom and Dark Habits: Lesbian Comedy, Lesbian Tragedy by Paul Julian Smith
Sense or Sensibility, or Latent Heterosexuality and Labyrinth of Passion by James Mandrell
Melodrama Against Itself: What Have I Done to Deserve This? by Kathleen M. Vernon
Tauromachy as a Spectacle of Gender Revision in Matador by Leora Lev
Almodovar's Laws of Subjectivity and Desire by Barbara Morris
Figuring Hysteria: Disorder and Desire in Three Films by Almodovar by Brad Epps
Almodovar's City of Desire by Marvin D'Lugo
From Matricide to Motherlove: High Heels by Marsha Kinder
Almodovar's Postmodern Cinema: A Work in Progress... by Victor Fuentes
From Rough Trade to Free Trade: Toward a Contextual Analysis of Audience Response to the Films of Pedro Almodovar by Wendy Rolph
Filmography
Selected Bibliography: "Almodovar in America"
Index
Introduction: Pedro Almodovar, Postmodern Auteur by Kathleen M. Vernon and Barbara Morris
Pepi, Luci, Bom and Dark Habits: Lesbian Comedy, Lesbian Tragedy by Paul Julian Smith
Sense or Sensibility, or Latent Heterosexuality and Labyrinth of Passion by James Mandrell
Melodrama Against Itself: What Have I Done to Deserve This? by Kathleen M. Vernon
Tauromachy as a Spectacle of Gender Revision in Matador by Leora Lev
Almodovar's Laws of Subjectivity and Desire by Barbara Morris
Figuring Hysteria: Disorder and Desire in Three Films by Almodovar by Brad Epps
Almodovar's City of Desire by Marvin D'Lugo
From Matricide to Motherlove: High Heels by Marsha Kinder
Almodovar's Postmodern Cinema: A Work in Progress... by Victor Fuentes
From Rough Trade to Free Trade: Toward a Contextual Analysis of Audience Response to the Films of Pedro Almodovar by Wendy Rolph
Filmography
Selected Bibliography: "Almodovar in America"
Index