Global Genres, Local Films: The Transnational Dimension of Spanish Cinema - Hardcover

An indispensable source ... Rigorously researched, well-reasoned and organized, and elegantly written, these thought-provoking essays considerably further the study of Spanish Cinema and film in general. * Miscelanea * A lively and engaging, wide-ranging survey of Spanish cinema in its local, global, industrial and intercultural contexts, one that is loaded with provocative analyses of key films and genres and keen to re-articulate their relationship with World cinema. * Rob Stone, Professor and Chair of European Film, University of Birmingham, UK * Historically-grounded but never historicist, in its consistent acknowledgement of the importance of power relations in cultural production Global Genres, Local Films usefully complicates the term 'transnational,' thereby rescuing it from the apolitical platitudes by which is all too frequently rendered. This book is destined to make a significant contribution to Spanish film studies. * Steven Marsh, Associate Professor of Spanish Film and Cultural Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA * This book brings to English-speaking readers some impeccably researched and lucidly written essays by important European film historians. Their rich and diverse film readings demonstrate the authors' deep knowledge of Spanish cinema and its contexts, bringing forward original objects of analysis and tackling films that are seldom discussed. The volume makes a fresh contribution to the debates about national and transnational paradigms and will fascinate researchers and students alike. * Nuria Triana Toribio, Professor of Hispanic Studies, University of Kent, UK *

The acute processes of globalisation at the turn of the century have generated an increased interest in exploring the interactions between the so-called global cultural products or trends and their specific local manifestations. Even though cross-cultural connections are becoming more patent in filmic productions in the last decades, cinema per se has always been characterized by its hybrid, transnational, border-crossing nature. From its own inception, Spanish film production was soon tied to the Hollywood film industry for its subsistence, but other film traditions such as those in the Soviet Union, France, Germany and, in particular, Italy also determined either directly or indirectly the development of Spanish cinema.

Global Genres, Local Films: The Transnational Dimension of Spanish Cinema reaches beyond the limits of the film text and analyses and contextualizes the impact of global film trends and genres on Spanish cinema in order to study how they helped articulate specific national challenges from the conflict between liberalism and tradition in the first decades of the 20th century to the management of the contemporary financial crisis. This collection provides the first comprehensive picture of the complex national and supranational forces that have shaped Spanish films, revealing the tensions and the intricate dialogue between cross-cultural aesthetic and narrative models on the one hand, and indigenous traditions on the other, as well as the political and historical contingencies these different expressions responded to.