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- Volume 1, Issue 3, 2005
Studies in Hispanic Cinemas (new title: Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas) - Volume 1, Issue 3, 2005
Volume 1, Issue 3, 2005
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Political and gender transitions in José Luis Garci's Solos en la madrugada (1978)
More LessThrough the character of José, played by José Sacristán in José Luis Garci's Solos en la madrugada (1978), this article examines how post-Franco Spanish films illustrate the struggle faced by Spanish men to find their political and gender-related roles in a society without Franco, the ultimate father figure. The turmoil caused by a transition to a democratic government from an extreme dictatorship is shown through analysis of José's interactions with the women in his life and his subsequent reactions to the awakening of their newfound sexuality. Focusing on José's attempt to redefine his role in society, and on relevant examples from other films from the period, the author explores the questions asked by all Spaniards in this period, yet even more so by men: where do we go from here?
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Imaging crisis in contemporary Argentina: mothers on the street and mothers on the screen
More LessThis article studies five films from the Argentinean post-dictatorship period in combination with an analysis of the performative aspects of current street protests in Argentina. Both protests and films signal the existence of a profound cultural contradiction in the country: while women and symbols of maternity are playing key roles in the articulation of effective political change, many Argentinian films include the character of the deranged mother as a metaphor for the nation and displace over her the responsibilities for the country's economic, social, and political failures. Careful analysis proves that the two phenomena are rooted in the experiences of trauma and resistance undergone by Argentinian society to the state terror imposed by the military government during the Proceso years.
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Contamination and transformation: a Kristevan reading of Luis Buñuel's Viridiana
More LessThe primary aim of this article is to explore, with some reference to the work of Julia Kristeva (especially to her concept of ‘the abject’), the implications of Luis Buñuel's Viridiana in relation to the social construction of an ideal and pure, albeit illusory, sense of self that alienates the individual from his/her desire and subjectivity. Attention is drawn to the different narrative devices and techniques that Buñuel employs to show how such an identity is always already contaminated by the material it strives to exclude. The analysis of key events in the film demonstrates how it is the experience and conscious realization of this contamination that undermines identity and, ultimately, transforms it, resulting in what is, arguably, a more authentic sense of self. The discussion will show the special relevance of this universal existential process of transformation to an understanding of the specific religious and socio-political situation that constitutes the film's historical context, namely, post-Civil War Spain.
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Film criticism and/or narrative? Horacio Quiroga's early embrace of cinema
By Lee WilliamsRaised on turn-of-the-century modernismo and spurned by the ultraist vanguard, Horacio Quiroga was the first River Plate writer to integrate cinematic elements into his narrative. He quickly embraced silent film, championing its artistic potential in four Hollywood-themed stories and in more than sixty movie columns between the years 1918 and 1931. The ‘non-real’ of cinema afforded him a twist to the formula of fever, intoxication and insanity, all used with great success in his ‘jungle’ stories. Film's inherent privileging of gestures and glances, not to mention tremendous plasticity in terms of focalization, provided a perfect foil to the Uruguayan's fiction. My article takes up several Quiroga movie reviews and one of his filmic stories, ‘Spectre’. This representative sampling elucidates a mirror relation between literature and criticism, and confirms that River Plate writer's precocious appreciation of silent film.
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Book Reviews
Authors: Helena López and Rikki Morgan-TamosunasGender and Spanish Cinema, Steven Marsh and Parvati Nair (eds), (2004) Oxford/New York: Berg, x + 230 pp., ISBN 1859737862 (hbk), £50; ISBN 185937919 (pbk), £16.99.
Bigas Luna: Jamón jamón, Peter William Evans (2004) Barcelona: Ediciones Paidós, 118 pp., ISBN 84-493-1555-7 (pbk), £9.
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Index — Volume 1
This page shows a reference list of all the articles that have appeared in this volume of the journal.
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