Santería, Vodou and Resistance in Caribbean Literature: Daughters of the Spirits
Paul Humphrey
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 12•25 February 2019
- ‘Humphrey does not argue for the homogenization of [Vodou and Santería], but for the honest recognition and acceptance of their differences. Moving past the violent stereotyping [...], he encourages us to treat these religions as ‘living systems’ in which slavery, colonialism, creolization and hybridity intersect in a dynamic negotiation of all the complexities that create what would be a ‘postcolonial’ Caribbean.’ — Janelle Rodriques, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 97.2, 2020, 294-95
Reprojecting the City: Urban Space and Dissident Sexualities in Recent Latin American Cinema
Benedict Hoff
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 13•13 February 2017
- ‘One of the latest additions to an expanding catalogue of queer approaches to Latin American cinema, Reprojecting the City identifies a ‘conceptual “sweet-spot”’ at the intersection between Urban, Queer, and Cinema Studies.’ — Rebecca Jarman, Modern Language Review 113.4, October 2018, 892-93 (full text online)
- ‘The four film-analysis chapters are very well pitched, deftly teasing out the representations of sexual identities manifested through the relationships mediated by the differing geopolitical urban scenarios... Hoff’s monograph is a valuable contribution to the study of sexuality in contemporary Latin-American cinemas as well as to the aesthetics and geopolitics of cinematic space. It will be valuable to researchers in the field and, because of its accessibility, to undergraduate students of South American cinema.’ — Sheldon Penn, Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies 2.2, 2018, 339-40
Catalan Narrative 1875-2015
Edited by Jordi Larios and Montserrat Lunati
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 16•28 September 2020
- ‘Two attractive features of the volume are its richness and the way it brings to life the wide variety of works analysed. Critical theory figures strongly in a number of the articles, but it is employed carefully and sometimes subtly as a framework that enhances rather than obscures the narrative texts under discussion. Finally, the editors’ succinct Introduction intelligently, clearly, and deftly ties together the diverse strands of the book’s eclectic content, inviting the casual reader to explore further.’ — David George, Modern Language Review 117.3, July 2022, 514-15 (full text online)
Film Festivals: Cinema and Cultural Exchange
Mar Diestro-Dópido
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 18•1 May 2021
- ‘A detailed account of the myriad aspects of film festivals and their cultural import both within and beyond the field of film studies. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of film, film festivals, film cultures, with specific relevance to those working in the fields of Basque, Spanish, Argentine, and British film and these related contexts.’ — Fiona Noble, Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies 7.1, 141-42 (full text online)
- ‘The key strength of Diestro-Dópido’s book lies in her ability to critically address the intricacies that shape film festivals by focusing on ‘the point of view of the communities that constitute the festival cosmos: organizers, funders, filmmakers, producers, critics, directors, programmers, guests, educational bodies, and more’. This book will be, therefore, an essential text for students and scholars of film festivals, as well as for those involved in running film festivals. It makes a unique contribution to the fields of Spanish screen studies and film festival studies alike due Diestro-Dópido’s original methodological and theoretical approach, close access to the main practitioners in the field and its focus on overlooked film festivals.’ — Jara Fernández Meneses, Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas 19, June 2022, 264-66 (full text online)
(Un)veiling Bodies: A Trajectory of Chilean Post-Dictatorship Documentary
Elizabeth Ramírez-Soto
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 20•23 September 2019
- ‘Estas reflexiones finales apuntan a que nos en-contramos ante una obra que no solo está llama-da a convertirse en lugar de paso obligado para investigaciones posteriores sobre el documental chileno contemporáneo inserto en el devenir de las políticas del pasado y la memoria, sino que ofrece intersticios para lecturas productivas en otros ámbitos y periodos.’ — María Luisa Ortega, Secuencias 51, 2020, 178-80
- ‘Impeccably documented and researched... the book works with over 100 films (an impressive corpus) and includes a filmography that will undoubtedly serve as an important resource for students and scholars... The book also rescues for/from the archive a vast group of nearly forgotten directors and films that open the reader’s mind to appreciate the breadth of what Chilean documentary film both has been and is. This is an especially important gesture for international readers... Pushes the conversation on documentary far beyond the stale, though classic debates about objectivity and subjectivity; it shows that documentary film is not only a medium capable of capturing memories but also of actively creating and triggering them through sensory experience.’ — Michael Lazzara, A Contracorriente 18.2, 2021, 271-78
- ‘Más allá de esto, no cabe duda que (Un)veiling Bodies. A Trajectory of Chilean Post-dictatorship documentary, se trata de un libro importante para futuros estudios sobre cine documental chileno, estableciendo un verdadero “piso” investigativo, que habrá que considerar al momento de acercarse a él.’ — Iván Pinto Veas, Imagofagia 24, 2021, 689-96
- ‘En la intersección de diversos ámbitos teóricos, la obra de Ramírez-Soto forma parte, al fin, de una tendencia fecunda que busca establecer puentes entre la historia, la ética y los estudios de la imagen. Desmarcándose prudentemente de los trauma studies y prefiriendo situar su reflexión bajo el signo del “giro afectivo”, (Un)veiling Bodies logra dar cuenta exitosamente de un periodo sensible de la producción documental en Chile, otorgando una nueva visibilidad a un corpus a menudo ignorado por los investigadores.’ — Ignacio Albornoz Fariña, Cinémas d'Amérique Latine 28, 2020, 170-71 (full text online)
Photographing the Unseen Mexico: Maya Goded’s Socially Engaged Documentaries
Dominika Gasiorowski
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 21•25 February 2019
- ‘By employing innovative, subaltern questioning, Dominika Gasiorowski makes an exceptionally strong case for engaging with this socially committed Mexican documentary filmmaker and photographer and has produced an extremely thorough and impactful study of Maya Goded’s work.’ — Erica Segre, Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies 5.1, 2021, 186-87 (full text online)
José Saramago: History, Utopia, and the Necessity of Error
Mark Sabine
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 23•19 December 2016
- ‘Beyond providing a rigorous, detailed and elegant analysis of those novels, Sabine offers a model for reading Saramago that will serve as reference point for any future work.’ — Paulo de Medeiros, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 95, 2018, 579-80
- ‘This volume is of tremendous use to both seasoned scholars of Saramago and those who, like many in the English-speaking world, are familiar only with his later novels.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 54.3, July 2018, 377
- ‘Likely to be welcomed by specialists and non-specialists looking for a critical grounding in the author’s initial and decisive novels of the 1980s.’ — Ana Paula Ferreira, Journal of Lusophone Studies 4.2, 2019, 299-301 (full text online)
- ‘From a broad perspective which accepts the idea of an inherent political project and its utopian message, this book excellently resumes the possible justifications, together with scholarly well founded contextualizations, thus offering an outstandingly solid basis from which to depart towards further fruitful debates.’ — Burghard Baltrusch, Portuguese Studies 36.1, July 2020, 115-19 (full text online)
The Cultural Legacy of María Zambrano
Edited by Xon de Ros and Daniela Omlor
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 24•3 April 2017
- ‘Tal y como promete su tîtulo, este monográfico le ofrece al lector una visión de conjunto del legado cultural de María Zambrano. Un elenco multidisciplinar e internacional de colaboradores se reúnen en esta publicacíon para, gracias a la cuidadosa labor de selección y edición de Xon de Ros y Daniela Omlor, proporcionar una contextualización de la extensa producción zambraniana en relación a las principales corrientes del pensamiento occidental contemporáneo.’ — Beatriz Caballero Rodríguez, Revista de Hispanismo Filosófico 23, 2019, 226-28
- ‘Pioneras en su contexto... Coronan el volumen una bibliografía y un índex, dando cuenta de la vigencia del pensamiento de María Zambrano en distintas ramas del saber como la filosofía, la poesía, las artes plásticas o la política.’ — Carmen María López López, Las Torres de Lucca 12, January-June 2018, 285-92
- ‘An important contribution to Zambrano’s bibliography... focuses on Zambrano’s role as a cultural agent, looking at her impact in the following areas: avant-garde, feminism, psycho-analysis, literary comparativism, art criticism and semiotics, autobiographical writing, political theory, historical memory and exile.’ — Pilar Molina, The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies 70, 2018, 284 (full text online)
- ‘Serious and sustained academic attention in the Anglophone world is in its infancy. The Cultural Legacy of María Zambrano takes on a pioneering role by being among the first book-length studies aimed at an English-speaking readership... A coherent and rigorous body of research, inviting the reader to reassess the impact of Zambrano’s legacy alongside her place in Western intellectual history.’ — Beatriz Caballero Rodríguez, Modern Language Review 115.1, 2020, 195-96 (full text online)
Cortázar and Music
Nicholas Roberts
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 25•30 December 2019
- ‘Alongside literature and politics, music is an inescapable presence in the work of Julio Cortázar. In this thorough and wide-ranging study, Nicholas Roberts provides a detailed analysis of the myriad ways in which music appears in the novels, short stories, and critical work of the Argentine. In the process, he reveals that music was no mere leitmotiv, but rather provided the structural tools for key works.’ — Ben Bollig, Modern Language Review 116.4, October 2021, 671-72 (full text online)
- ‘Es un libro que invita a sus lectores a reencontrarse con las obras de Cortázar, pero al mismo tiempo nos inspira a perseguir una serie de preguntas más generales sobre la presencia de la música en la literatura moderna.’ — Matt Johnson, Revista Iberoamericana 87.276, July-September 2021, 952-54
The Novels of Carmen Laforet: An Aesthetics of Relief
Caragh Wells
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 29•29 April 2019
- ‘Caragh Wells's seminal exploration of the psychological and aesthetic underpinning of Laforet’s novels is a must-read for anyone interested in such aspects of literature, Hispanic and global.’ — Lilit Žekulin Thwaites, Journal of Iberian and Latin American Research March 2020 (full text online)
- ‘A required tome for any serious scholar or student of Carmen Laforet. It is a carefully researched and thoughtfully written study that should place Caragh Wells among the elite Laforetian scholars of the day.’ — Mark P. Del Mastro, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 97.3, March 2020, 444-45
No Country for Nonconforming Women: Feminine Conceptions of Lusophone Africa
Maria Tavares
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 32•30 September 2018
- ‘An excellent scholarly contribution that is both clear and accessible. It must be critically addressed byprofessors, students, and researchers both in and beyond the Lusophone academic sphere.’ — Sandra I. Sousa, Journal of Lusophone Studies 4.1, 2019, 328-30 (full text online)
Pepetela and the MPLA: The Ethical Evolution of a Revolutionary Writer
Phillip Rothwell
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 36•30 April 2019
- ‘The result is a deft, nuanced and accomplished analysis not only of Pepetela and his most important works, but of contemporary Angola and the way that the MPLA has wielded its power... It is a landmark work of scholarship from one of the field’s most accomplished critics, and essential reading for scholars of Lusophone African cultures, Angolan social history and Luso-Brazilian and African literatures.’ — Lanie Millar, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 97.6, 2020, 1069-1070
Queer Genealogies in Transnational Barcelona: Maria-Mercè Marçal, Cristina Peri Rossi, and Flavia Company
Natasha Tanna
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 37•30 December 2019
Contemporary Galician Women Writers
Catherine Barbour
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 39•28 September 2020
- ‘Contemporary Galician Women Writers is an engaging and informative study of Galician literature and identity and, especially, a valuable contribution to the scholarship on Galician narrative fiction by women.’ — Silvia Oliveira, Hispania 105.2, June 2022, 303-04 (full text online)
- ‘A valuable contribution that presents a thorough picture of the Galician cultural landscape; at the same time, it stresses the need for academia to enquire beyond the national understanding of literary systems.’ — Lucia Cernadas, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 94.2, 2022, 379-80 (full text online)
- ‘Presents a compelling, well-written textual analysis of six novels that adds substantially to our knowledge about three commercially successful writers who, except for Moure (the Galician-language writer), are yet to receive sustained attention. The book convincingly shows that much is learnt about the literary representation of Galician identities when the works under study are by authors who are located outside Galician national literature. The book will be of interest to scholars working on Hispanic Peninsular, particularly Galician, Literary Studies, but it also has much to offer to other literary scholars, especially those working on women’s writing.’ — María Liñeira, Galicia 21 2023, 124-27
Twentieth-Century Sephardic Authors from the Former Yugoslavia: A Judeo-Spanish Tradition
Željko Jovanović
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 41•28 September 2020
- ‘La investigación que presenta Željko Jovanović en su monografía Twentieth-Century Sephardic Authors from the Former Yugoslavia. A Judeo-Spanish Tradition era, yo creo, necesaria. El autor ofrece, en los tres capítulos que forman la parte palpitante del volumen, una reflexión muy finamente detallada de la evolución de la literatura oral en el ámbito de las comunidades sefardíes de la antigua Yugoslavia... Finalmente, sería injusto terminar esta reseña sin subrayar la riqueza de las notas que acompañan cada capítulo y que no son una simple añadidura, sino que aportan información útil e interesante; además,el gusto de esta monografía está enriquecido por las fotografías esparcidas en el volumen y que restituyen, a través del poderdela imagen, la vivacidad de los protagonistas que Željko Jovanović ha logrado retratar con inteligente maestría.’ — Paola Bellomi, Meldar 2, 2021, 61-64 (full text online)
- ‘En su exposición, Jovanović aúna siempre el rigor positivista con la sutileza interpretativa: la riqueza de la información, el respeto a los hechos e incluso la atención a los mínimos detalles textuales no excluyen otras formas de análisis que, manejadas con cautela, permiten al autor construir un libro sólido y brillante, que arroja luz sobre muchas cuestiones: la oralidad y su relación con la escritura, la historia de las mujeres y de las minorías y, naturalmente, la pervivencia del legado hispánico más allá de los límites de la Península.’ — Álvaro Alonso, Boletín de literatura oral 11, 2021, 321-23 (full text online)
- ‘This is a valuable book, well thought out, with an extensive bibliography (including many items in Serbo-Croat), illustrations and useful indices.’ — Bulletin of Spanish Studies February 2022 (full text online)
- ‘Unburdened by jargon and meticulously researched, Jovanović’s study is a welcome resource for those working on the literary heritage of the Sephardim. The text will also be of interest to those writing on Spanish–Yugoslav relations, cultural history, transnational literary transmission and translation, and linguistic varia- tions of Ladino across the twentieth century.’ — Alma Prelec, Modern Language Review 118.2, 2023, 271-72 (full text online)
- ‘El libro es una aportación importante al estudio de la cultura de los sefardíes de Serbia y Bosnia, al conocimiento de la cultura sefardí en general y su evolución en época contemporánea y, más ampliamente, a los estudios sobre las relaciones entre cultura popular y creación literaria culta y al análisis de la construcción de relatos sobre la identidad cultural y la memorialización del pasado de una minoría, tomando como base una tradición folklórica en proceso de desaparición.’ — Paloma Díaz-Mas, MEAH 70, 2022, 257-62
Quim Monzó and Contemporary Catalan Culture (1975–2018): Cultural Normalization, Postmodernism and National Politics
Guillem Colom-Montero
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 45•26 July 2021
- ‘Con una prosa nítida que nada tiene que ver con la infumable y obtusa jerga académica de tantos textos universitarios, Colom aborda el personaje, la obra y la trayectoria de Monzó de un modo integral, desde sus inicios como enfant terrible contracultural que actuaba desde los márgenes del sistema cultural hasta su posición de centralidad en el panorama cultural y mediático y en el canon literario catalán... Lean el libro de Guillem Colom sobre Quim Monzó, un hombre que — en esto tampoco ho cambiado nada en cinco décadas — siempre se ha tomado muy en serio esto de escribir y muy burlonamente lo de ser escritor.’ — Pere Antoni Pons, Última Hora 19 December 2021
- ‘Confessa que sempre ha llegit Quim Monzó, que sempre l’ha fascinat, però en cap cas amaga que algunes de les contradiccions de l’escriptor català li produïen tensió.’ — Cristina Ros, Ara interview, 5 January 2022
- ‘Given the importance (cultural, social and political) that Monzó has in current Catalan culture, we must celebrate the publication of a study as fundamental as the one we are reviewing... Conceived as a study of Quim Monzó’s literary and cultural trajectory, Guillem Colom-Montero’s monograph offers a broad frieze of Catalan culture between 1975 and 2018, linking it to the debates, anxieties and tensions generated by the development of counterculture, libertarian thought and postmodernity. In this way, much of the interest and value of the book – which is highly readable, well-documented and rich – is due to its focus as an interdisciplinary cultural study.’ — Maria Dasca, International Journal of Iberian Studies 35.1, 1 March 2022, 96-98 (full text online)
- ‘El llibre s’inicia, l’any 2018, amb la distinció que Òmnium Cultural feia a l’escriptor català atorgant-li el premi d’Honor de les Lletres Catalanes. La captació d’aquell moment i el repàs del discurs que Monzó va fer durant la gala, on vinculava passat i present de la història de la repressió i l’exili a Catalunya, tenint en compte que el president de l’entitat, Jordi Cuixart, ja estava empresonat, produeixen un efecte de narrativa circular, d’obra rodona, que s’obre i es tanca tan coherentment, que ja des del principi hom pot copsar la direcció de les tesis de Colom-Montero... El fet que el llibre recuperi gran part de l’obra oblidada de Monzó posa en evidència els efectes mateixos de la normalització sobre el camp d’estudis culturals i literaris català pràcticament fins a l’actualitat. I alhora, permet connectar les tesis de Colom-Montero amb altres treballs crítics d’àmbit hispànic (Martínez 2012; Delgado 2014) que també han revisat qüestions relacionades amb la cultura en general, i les seves relacions a’ — Júlia Ojeda Caba, Caplletra 72, 2022, 315-19