Focusing on the developments over the last twenty years in Spain, this stimulating book contains twenty-eight original essays, by recognized specialists, that offer a new interdisciplinary approach to contemporary Spanish culture and society. Combining overviews and case studies, the essays range widely over a diverse series of topic areas, including race, nationalism and identity, the media, gender and sex, religion, sport, and shopping. By providing students, scholars, and general readers entrance to the key debates and issues involved in contemporary Spanish culture, this volume represents a crucial landmark in the ongoing definition of the new field of Spanish Cultural Studies.

This work adopts an interdisciplinary approach in its study of 20th-century Spanish culture and society, emphasizing contemporary developments. The contributors take into account major recent changes which have taken place in the context of higher education Spanish studies.

Some 750 alphabetically-arranged entries provide insights into recent cultural and political developments within Spain, including the cultures of Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque country. Coverage spans from the end of the Civil War in 1939 to the present day, with emphasis on the changes following the demise of the Franco dictatorship in 1975. Entries range from shorter, factual articles to longer overview essays offering in-depth treatment of major issues. Culture is defined in its broadest sense. Entries include: *Antonio Gaudí * science * Antonio Banderas * golf * dance * education * politics * racism * urbanization This Encyclopedia is essential reading for anyone interested in Spanish culture. It provides essential cultural context for students of Spanish, European History, Comparative European Studies and Cultural Studies.

These interdisciplinary essays focus on how cultural practices help form the Spanish identity, by introducing a range of theoretical debates and exploring specific areas of 20th century Spanish culture.

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 the ethnographic photography of Cristina Garcia Rodero to the high tech architecture of SantiagoCalatrava and from the hyperrealist painting of Antonio Lopez to the neo-flamenco dance of Joaquin Cortes, 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). Refutingthe 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.

Contemporary cultural geography and contemporary Spanish culture are married in this pioneering study of space and place. Spain's varied terrain—with complex negotiations between the rural, urban, and coastal—offers an ideal setting in which to explore questions of landscape, space, and place. In Spanish Spaces, Ann Davies draws on contemporary Spanish film and literature to explore Spain's sophisticated sense of its geographical and spatial self.

Contemporary Latin American Cultural Studies is a collection of new essays by recognised experts from around the world on various aspects of the new discipline of Latin American cultural studies. Essays are grouped in five distinct but interconnected sections focusing respectively on: (I) the theory of Latin American cultural studies; (II) the icons of culture; (III) culture as a commodity; (IV) culture as a site of resistance; and (V) everyday cultural practices. The essays range across a wide gamut of theories about Latin American culture; some, for example, analyse the role that ideas about the nation - and national icons  have played in the formation of a sense of identity in Latin America, while others focus on the resonance underlying cultural practices as diverse as football in Argentina, TV in Uruguay, cinema in Brazil, and the 'bolero' and soaps of modern-day Mexico. Contemporary Latin American Cultural Studies has an introduction setting the ideas explored in each section in their proper context. The essays are written in jargon-free English (all Spanish terms have been translated into English), and are supplemented by a concluding section with suggestions for further reading.