Gema Pérez-Sánchez argues that the process of political and cultural transition from dictatorship to democracy in Spain can be read allegorically as a shift from a dictatorship that followed a self-loathing "homosexual" model to a democracy that identified as a pluralized "queer" body. Focusing on the urban cultural phenomenon of la movida, she offers a sustained analysis of high queer culture, as represented by novels, along with an examination of low queer culture, as represented by comic books and films. Pérez-Sánchez shows that urban queer culture played a defining role in the cultural and political processes that helped to move Spain from a premodern, fascist military dictatorship to a late-capitalist, parliamentary democracy. The book highlights the contributions of women writers Ana María Moix and Cristina Peri Rossi, as well as comic book artists Ana Juan, Victoria Martos, Ana Miralles, and Asun Balzola. Its attention to women's cultural production functions as a counterpoint to its analysis of the works of such male writers as Juan Goytisolo and Eduardo Mendicutti, comic book artists Nazario, Rubén, and Luis Pérez Ortiz, and filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar.

In this dynamic collection of essays, many leading literary scholars trace gay and lesbian themes in Latin American, Hispanic, and U.S. Latino literary and cultural texts. Reading and Writing the Ambiente is consciously ambitious and far-ranging, historically as well as geographically. It includes discussions of texts from as early as the seventeenth century to writings of the late twentieth century. Reading and Writing the Ambiente also underscores the ways in which lesbian and gay self-representation in Hispanic texts differs from representations in Anglo-American texts. The contributors demonstrate that--unlike the emphasis on the individual in Anglo- American sexual identity--Latino, Spanish, and Latin American sexual identity is produced in the surrounding culture and community, in the ambiente. As one of the first collections of its kind, Reading and Writing the Ambiente is expressive of the next wave of gay Hispanic and Latin scholarship.

Lesbian Realities/Lesbian Fictions in Contemporary Spain, edited by Nancy Vosburg and Jacky Collins, focuses exclusively on manifestations of lesbian cultures and identities in contemporary Spain. Bringing together key essays from a range of international scholars, this anthology of critical essays examines the changing cultural, sociological and political landscape of Spain at the turn of the millennium. Divided into two sections, the first contributions focus on the realities of lesbian lives and looks at how Spanish lesbian identities are constructed through language and the media. The essays in the second section analyze contemporary lesbian identities as manifested in novels and short stories published since the late 1980s by authors such as Carme Riera, Lola van Guardia, Flavia Company and Mabel GalOn. The aim of this volume is to provide a significant and coherent contribution in English to the body of knowledge within an evolving subject area that has remained relatively under-researched until recently. Throughout the anthology, the visibility of the lesbian subject in Spain, either within the media, literature, the Parliament, and even within the gay book-publishing industry, emerges as a key concept for analyzing the status of lesbians in Spanish society. All essays in our volume are original, previously unpublished works written specifically for this volume by contributors who have been involved in researching or developing lesbian cultures in Spain. Lesbian Realities/Fictions in Contemporary Spain brings knowledge into the public domain that hitherto has remained hidden, and provides access to an audience interested in social and cultural change in Spain and yet who are unable to access material in Spanish. It is a particularly invaluable resource for teachers and students of Spanish cultural studies, global sexuality, and gender studies.

Toward a Cultural Archive of la Movida revisits the cultural and social milieu in which laMovida, an explosion of artistic production in the late 1970s and early 1980s, was articulated discursively, aesthetically, socially, and politically. We connect this experience with a broader national and international context that takes it beyond the city of Madrid and outside the borders of Spain. This collection of essays links the political and social undertakings of this cultural period with youth movements in Spain and other international counter-cultural or underground movements. Moving away from biographical experiences or the identification of further participants and works that belong to laMovida, the articles collected in this volume situate this movement within the political and social development of post-Franco Spain. Finally, it also offers a reading of recent politically motivated recoveries of this cultural phenomenon through exhibitions, state sponsored documentaries, musicals, or tourist itineraries. The perception of Spain as representative of a successful dual transition from dictatorship to democracy and free market capitalism created a “Spanish model” that has been emulated in countries like Portugal, Argentina, Chile and Hungary, all formerly ruled by totalitarian regimes. While social scientists study the promises, contradictions and failures of the Spanish Transición—especially on issues of memory, repression, and (the lack of) reconciliation —our approach from the humanities offers another vantage point to a wider discussion of an unfinished chapter in recent Spanish history by focusing on laMovida as the “cultural archive” whose cultural transitions parallel the political and economic ones. The transgressive, urban nature of this movement demonstrated an overt desire, especially among Spanish youth, to reach onto a global arena emulating the punk and new wave aesthetic of such cities as London, New York, Paris, and Berlin. Art, design, film, music, fashion during this period helped to forge a sense of a modern urban identity in Spain that also reflected the tensions between modernity and tradition, global forces and local values, international mass media technology and regional customs.

Queer Events studies the representations of queer subjectivities during the Spanish Transition era (1960s to 1990s), drawing on some of the most influential critical theorists and philosophers of our times (Gilles Deleuze, Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou). The book focuses on well-known Spanish authors and film-makers (Terenci Moix, Vicente Aranda) as well as on others who have merited far less critical attention so far (including Antonio Roig, Alberto Cardín, and the directors of the short-lived avant-garde film movement known as ‘Escuela de Barcelona’).

Focusing on Spanish culture and society in the second half of the twentieth century, Despotic Bodies and Transgressive Bodies traverses a variety of disciplines: literature, film studies, cultural studies, feminist theory, and history, to examine crucial moments of cultural transition. Beginning with an analysis of the period of autarky—Spain's economic, cultural, and ideological isolation under Francisco Franco's regime— Pavlović then explores the tumultuous passage to capitalism in the late 1950s and 1960s. She follows this by revisiting the complex political situation following Franco's death and points out the difficulties in Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy. Combining a strong theoretical background with a detailed study of marginalized texts (La fiel infantería), genres (the Spanish comedy known as the comedia sexy celtibérica), and film directors (Jesús Franco), Pavlović reveals the construction of Spanish national identity through years of cultural tensions.