Laws of Desire: Questions of Homosexuality in Spanish Writing and Film 1960-1990 Unknown - 1992

From the rear cover

The period from 1960 to 1990 witnessed great change and innovation in Spanish writing about homosexuality, or by gay and lesbian authors. Laws of Desire is a pioneering work which examines a range of Hispanic texts, from Goytisolo to Almodovar, that raise the question of homosexual desire. It links a general theoretical discussion of the issues involved in the realization of gay and lesbian identities with local analyses of individual works, passages, or cinematic sequences. Paul Julian Smith charts varying representations of the feminist or gay self, in autobiographical texts by Chacel, Goytisolo, and Terenci Moix, and in the field of the novel offers radical new readings of Goytisolo and Tusquets, the major novelists of homosexual desire in Spain. He also examines the key cinematic works of Eloy de la Iglesia and Pedro Almodovar, the two central gay auteurs of post-Franco cinema, drawing on original archival research and paying particular attention to cinematic form. Laws of Desire concludes with an analysis of Tie me up! Tie me down! ((actual symbol not reproducible)Atame!), which illustrates again that homosexuality is no unitary phenomenon, but rather a historical and libidinal construct inevitably inflected by gender, class, and regional identity. Challenging in its arguments and rich in detail, the book makes a significant contribution to debates in gay and lesbian studies and to understanding the role of homosexuality in contemporary Spanish culture.