Overview
- Serves as the first book-length publication dedicated exclusively to Spanish dystopias
- Examines sociocultural issues within a literary context including consumerism, immigration, financial crises, precarity, and political resistance
- Focuses on spatial compositions within discussed works
Part of the book series: Hispanic Urban Studies (HUS)
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Table of contents(7 chapters)
About this book
This study examines contemporary Spanish dystopian literature and films (in)directly related to the 2008 financial crisis from an urban cultural studies perspective. It explores culturally-charged landscapes that effectively convey the zeitgeist and reveal deep-rooted anxieties about issues such as globalization, consumerism, immigration, speculation, precarity, and political resistance (particularly by Indignados [Indignant Ones] from the 15-M Movement). The book loosely traces the trajectory of the crisis, with the first part looking at texts that underscore some of the behaviors that indirectly contributed to the crisis, and the remaining chapters focusing on works that directly examine the crisis and its aftermath. This close reading of texts and films by Ray Loriga, Elia Barceló, Ion de Sosa, José Ardillo, David Llorente, Eduardo Vaquerizo, and Ricardo Menéndez Salmón offers insights into the creative ways that these authors and directors use spatial constructions to capture the dystopian imagination.
Reviews
“We needed Diana Q Palardy’s book. Her investigation has all the features of a good study; it is rigorous, eclectic, and stimulating, with a clear-headed theoretical base applied wisely to particular novels. She also clarifies and develops an essential subject of our time that is in most urgent need of critical inquiry. She provides Spanish readers, novelists and essayists with a place from which we can move forward.” (Fernando Ángel Moreno, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain)
“Palardy’s book is an invaluable contribution to the study on how the 2008 Great Recession has been reflected in the literature of Spain, one of the countries worst hit by the latest economic crisis and the subsequent austerity measures. This crisis has brought about a high number of dystopias (both filmic and literary) denouncing the crisis and its causes, as well as speculating about its present and anticipated social and human costs. Some representative examples are discussed in an illuminating way not only for Spain, but for any other country having suffered the same ordeal. In doing this, the author has produced a highly accurate and readable account showing how dystopian texts can transcend local and temporary circumstances to have universal appeal, especially considering that dystopia is now a significant mode of fiction, in Spain and elsewhere.” (Mariano Martín Rodríguez, HISTOPIA)
Authors and Affiliations
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Department of Foreign Languages, Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH, USA
Diana Q. Palardy
About the author
Diana Q Palardy is Associate Professor of Spanish at Youngstown State University, USA. She has published articles in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, Romance Notes, España Contemporánea, and Revista Chilena de Literatura. She is on the steering committee of the Society for Utopian Studies.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Dystopian Imagination in Contemporary Spanish Literature and Film
Authors: Diana Q. Palardy
Series Title: Hispanic Urban Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92885-2
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-92884-5Published: 13 August 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-06539-3Published: 29 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-92885-2Published: 27 July 2018
Series ISSN: 2662-5830
Series E-ISSN: 2662-5849
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 235
Number of Illustrations: 4 b/w illustrations, 1 illustrations in colour
Topics: European Culture, European Cinema and TV, Urban Studies/Sociology, European Literature, Close Reading