Author: Paul Julian Smith
ISBN: 9781800734418
Format: New in Paperback
Extent: 176 pp
Price: £22.95
Publication: March 2022
Publisher: Berghahn Books
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Cinema and Television in Contemporary Spain
Though unjustly neglected by English-language audiences, Spanish film and television not only represent a remarkably influential and vibrant cultural industry; they are also a fertile site of innovation in the production of “transmedia” works that bridge narrative forms.
In Spanish Lessons, Paul Julian Smith provides an engaging exploration of visual culture in an era of collapsing genre boundaries, accelerating technological change, and political-economic tumult. Whether generating new insights into the work of key figures like Pedro Almodóvar, comparing media depictions of Spain’s economic woes, or giving long-overdue critical attention to quality television series, Smith’s book is a consistently lively and accessible cultural investigation.
This book, divided into three parts and nine chapters, sets out to explore the issue of ‘transmedia’ in Spanish visual culture (mostly cinema and television) by analysing an impressively wide range of case studies with admirable concision and clarity… Importantly, the book also analyses and engages with academic and journalistic discussions of these texts, industry screenings, blogs, websites, fan media and stars… Spanish Lessons may well mark the (re)connection of academic discourses on Spanish cinema with television and other forms of media. Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies
There is no one, to my knowledge, who brings the same level of expertise to the study of contemporary Spanish-language visual culture. This book is an exciting new contribution that effortlessly combines the insights of the industry insider, the journalist and the film reviewer with the scholarly range of the academic. Jo Evans, University College London