Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Date of Degree

6-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Program

Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures

Advisor

Paul Julian Smith

Committee Members

Isolina Ballesteros

Nuria Morgado

Subject Categories

Film and Media Studies | Spanish Literature

Keywords

affect, vulnerability, Spanish literature, Spanish film, autobiography, Otro cine español

Abstract

This dissertation explores the autobiographical literature and cinema produced in the context of a Spain in Crisis (between 2008 and 2019), using recent theories on affect (Brian Massumi, Sarah Ahmed ...) and vulnerability (Judith Butler, Adriana Cavarero…). Through comprehensive close reading, it examines three novels (Clavícula by Marta Sanz, Ordesaby Manuel Vilas and El amor del revés by Luisgé Martín) and three films (Mapa by Elías León Siminiani, True Love by Ion de Sosa, both representative of the Other Spanish Cinema, and Dolor y gloria by Pedro Almodóvar) in order to identify the “inclinations of the I” carried out in each case. These “inclinations of the I” refer to strategies of various kinds: the deconstruction of the modern ideal of an autonomous, vertical and eminently rational subject; the questioning of the traditional bases of the autobiographical discourse and subject; the emphasis on the embodied, affective, exposed, dependent and relational aspect of subjectivity; and vulnerability as an essential quality for the self-inscription of the “I”in creative discourses. The evaluation of these strategies considers different dimensions of the works, from formal, textual, stylistic, or aesthetic, to other ethical, political, or philosophical ones, integrating all of them in the characterization of this significant and interdisciplinary development of autobiographical creation in contemporary Spain.

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