Gender In Hispanic Literature And Visual Arts

This edited collection provides an interdisciplinary and multicultural perspective on gender within Hispanic film and literature.

Hierarchies and disparities based on sex and gender have characterized nearly all hominid societies since time immemorial. Nearly without exception, those disparities have created a hierarchy of male over female. Languages reflect that. For example, in the English language, the word for the "fe/male" sex is based on the word "male;" "man" is the root for wo/man; and indeed "man" is generally considered the generic for all members of the species. Spanish, on the other hand, does differentiate "hombre" from "mujer," but the masculine is still considered the root and the generic. For the purposes of S/HE: Sex & Gender in Hispanic Worlds, sex refers to biological differences, i.e. reproductive organs and secondary sexual characteristics, which are perceived as oppositional yet collaborative, in the propagation of the species. Gender, on the other hand, refers to culturally-specific expectations and/or stereotypes in terms of an individual's or group's self (re)presentation and/or behaviors. The title, S/HE, is a nod to the arguably gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun from the 1960s inclusive English-language movement in the United States, which was concurrent with equal rights movements in terms of race, ethnicity, sex and gender. This book focuses on sex, and gender issues in the Hispanic world, paying homage to all who do not fit within the strict parameters of previous definitions by including broadened descriptions of identity, both biological and social, and by highlighting aspects of traditional and non-traditional lifestyles as portrayed in art and literature. Subject: Gender Studies, Hispanic Studies, LGBTIQ, Sociology, Cultural Studies]

It is astonishing how deeply the figure of Ophelia has been woven into the fabric of Spanish literature and the visual arts – from her first appearance in eighteenth-century translations of Hamlet, through depictions by seminal authors such as Espronceda, Bécquer and Lorca, to turn-of-the millennium figurations. This provocative, gendered figure has become what both male and female artists need her to be – is she invisible, a victim, mad, controlled by the masculine gaze, or is she an agent of her own identity? This well-documented study addresses these questions in the context of Iberia, whose poets, novelists and dramatists writing in Spanish, Catalan and Galician, as well as painters and photographers, have brought Shakespeare’s heroine to life in new guises. Ophelia performs as an authoritative female author, as new perspectives reflect and authorise the gender diversity that has gained legitimacy in Spanish society since the political Transition.

DIVAnalyzes Latin American and Caribbean folk art from a feminist perspective, considering the issue of gender in the production and circulation of popular art produced by women./div

An interdisciplinary analysis of gender, race, empire, and colonialism in fin-de-siècle Spanish literature and culture across the global Hispanic world. Unsettling Colonialism illuminates the interplay of race and gender in a range of fin-de-siècle Spanish narratives of empire and colonialism, including literary fictions, travel narratives, political treatises, medical discourse, and the visual arts, across the global Hispanic world. By focusing on texts by and about women and foregrounding Spain’s pivotal role in the colonization of the Americas, Africa, and Asia, this book not only breaks new ground in Iberian literary and cultural studies but also significantly broadens the scope of recent debates in postcolonial feminist theory to account for the Spanish empire and its (former) colonies. Organized into three sections: colonialism and women’s migrations; race, performance, and colonial ideologies; and gender and colonialism in literary and political debates, Unsettling Colonialism brings together the work of nine scholars.Given its interdisciplinary approach and accessible style, the book will appeal to both specialists in nineteenth-century Iberian and Latin American studies and a broader audience of scholars in gender, cultural, transatlantic, transpacific, postcolonial, and empire studies. “Each essay uniquely contributes to the theme of exploring the entanglements of gender and race through individual authors and texts in addition to those discourses that articulate Spanish colonialism and imperialism.” — Alda Blanco, San Diego State University

This illustrated anthology brings together for the first time a collection of essays that explore the position of women and the contributions made by them to the arts and architecture of early modern Latin America.

Fashioning Spain is a cultural history of Spanish fashion in the 20th and 21st centuries, a period of significant social, political, and economic upheaval. As Spain moved from dictatorship to democracy and, most recently, to the digital age, fashion has experienced seismic shifts. The chapters in this collection reveal how women empowered themselves through fashion choices, detail Balenciaga's international stardom, present female photographers challenging gender roles under Franco's rule, and uncover the politicization of the mantilla. In the visual culture of Spanish fashion, tradition and modernity coexist and compete, reflecting society's changing affects. Using a range of case studies and approaches, this collection explores fashion in films, comics from la Movida, Rosalía's music videos, and both brick-and-mortar and virtual museums. It demonstrates that fashion is ripe with historical meaning, and offers unique insights into the many facets of Spanish cultural life.

Grappling with the contemporary Latin American literary climate and its relationship to the pervasive technologies that shape global society, this book visits Latin American literature, technology, and digital culture from the post-boom era to the present day. The volume examines literature in dialogue with the newest media, including videogames, blogs, electronic literature, and social networking sites, as well as older forms of technology, such as film, photography, television, and music. Together, the essays interrogate how the global networked subject has affected local political and cultural concerns in Latin America. They show that this subject reflects an affective mode of knowledge that can transform the way scholars understand the effects of reading and spectatorship on the production of political communities. The collection thus addresses a series of issues crucial to current and future discussions of literature and culture in Latin America: how literary, visual, and digital artists make technology a formal element of their work; how technology, from photographs to blogs, is represented in text, and the ramifications of that presence; how new media alters the material circulation of culture in Latin America; how readership changes in a globalized electronic landscape; and how critical approaches to the convergences, boundaries, and protocols of new media might transform our understanding of the literature and culture produced or received in Latin America today and in the future.