The Moderns: Time, Space, and Subjectivity in Contemporary Spanish Culture (Oxford Hispanic Studies) - Softcover

Smith, Paul Julian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198160011 ISBN 13: 9780198160014

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2000

Synopsis

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 ethnographic photography to high tech architecture, from hyperrealist painting to neo-flamenco dance, 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). Refuting the 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.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Julian Smith is Professor of Spanish, University of Cambridge

Review

`Skilfully drawing upon his own work and that of others in the field ... Smith forces us to reassess our preconceptions and attitudes towards those who shape contemporary Spanish society. This gives us a clearer understanding of where modern Spain is coming from and where it is going.'
British Bulletin of Publications, No.104 (2001)

`unashamedly scholarly approach'
British Bulletin of Publications, No.104 (2001)

`With Spanish cultural studies at a relatively elementary stage, this publication by the respected Hispanist Paul Julian Smith is to be welcomed.'
British Bulletin of Publications, No.104 (2001)

`one of the book's greatest achievements is the way that it draws attention to the specificity of individual works while attempting at the same time to integrate them into an objective account of Spanish cultural production and consumption'
David Vilaseca, Times Higher Education Supplement

`inspiring and rigorous take on contemporary Spanish culture'
David Vilaseca, Times Higher Education Supplement

`academically impeccable ... attentive to the multiplicity of cultural formations characteristic of contemporary Spanish society'
David Vilaseca, Times Higher Education Supplement

`The field of Spanish cultural studies is expanding and Paul Julian Smith's latest book is an exemplary work in this growing discipline.'
David Vilaseca, Times Higher Education Supplement

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0198160011
• ISBN 13: 9780198160014
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 218