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Post-Franco, Postmodern The Films of Pedro Almodóvar

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Edited by Kathleen M. Vernon and Barbara Morris

ISBN: 0-313-29245-0

ISBN-13: 978-0-313-29245-3

DOI:

232 pages, filmography,

Greenwood Press

Publication: 1/30/1995

List Price: $103.95 (UK Sterling Price: £59.95)

Availability:

Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Series Title: Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture

Series Number: 43

Reviews:

An important study of Almodóvar and his widely acclaimed films. Each of the ten contributors carefully analyzes one or more of Almodóvar 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 Almodóvar's films. Theoretically sound and eminently readable, this work will appeal to scholars and aficionados alike. All academic libraries.
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Description: The films of Pedro Almodóvar 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 Almodóvar's phenomenal international success. This volume offers a corrective to the glib approaches that have dominated previous discussions of Almodóvar'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 Almodóvar'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.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Introduction: Pedro Almodóvar, 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
Almodóvar's Laws of Subjectivity and Desire by Barbara Morris
Figuring Hysteria: Disorder and Desire in Three Films by Almodóvar by Brad Epps
Almodóvar's City of Desire by Marvin D'Lugo
From Matricide to Motherlove: High Heels by Marsha Kinder
Almodóvar'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 Almodóvar by Wendy Rolph
Filmography
Selected Bibliography: "Almodóvar in America"
Index

LC Card Number: 94-32047

LCC Class: PN1998

Dewey Class: 791.43


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