Post-Franco Postmodern

The films of Pedro Almodovar 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 Almodovar''s phenomenal international success. This volume offers a corrective to the glib approaches that have dominated previous discussions of Almodovar''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 Almodovar''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.