Spanish Erotic Cinema

The first comprehensive scholarly study of Spanish erotic cinema, this book covers a significant part of the history of Spanish film, from the 1920s until the present day. Starting with a study of the kiss in silent films, the volume explores homoerotic narratives in the crusade films of the 1940s, the commodification of bodies in the late Franco period, and the so-called destape (literally ‘undressing’) period that followed the abolition of censorship during the democratic transition.
Reclaiming the importance of Spanish erotic cinema as a genre in itself, a range of international scholars demonstrate how the explicit depiction of sex can be a useful tool to illuminate current and historic social issues including ageism, colonialism, domestic violence, immigration, nationalisms, or women and LGBT rights. Covering a wide range of cinematic genres, including comedy, horror and melodrama, this book provides an innovative and provocative overview of Spanish cinema history and society in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Author Biography

Santiago Fouz-Hernández is Professor in Hispanic Studies at Durham University. He is the author of Cuerpos de cine (2013) and, with Alfredo Martínez-Expósito, Live Flesh. The Male Body in Contemporary Spanish Cinema (2007). He is also editor of Mysterious Skin. Male Bodies in Contemporary Cinema (2009), co-editor of two other volumes and editorial board member of Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas. Currently he is preparing a monograph on Spanish filmmaker Bigas Luna.