Smile! You are in Spain. Thursday 10 November 2011

In his 30-year long career director Pedro Almodóvar has coined some of the most enduring and recognisable stock images of contemporary Spain. Yet, his highly idiosyncratic mix of camp and somberness (of silicone and sentiment, in the words of a notable commentator), is seen by many as a grotesque deformation of Spanishness that has projected a skewed image of the country around the world. In stark opposition to all-smile official tourism campaigns, Almodóvar's Spain is a country of contradiction and excess -- passion, paradox and pain.

In this lecture Professor Alfredo Martínez-Expósito examined Almodóvar and the spectacle of authenticity in Spanish cinema.

Alfredo Martínez-Expósito is Professor of Hispanic Studies and Head of the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Melbourne. He has published extensively on Spanish queer literature and cinematic representations of the male body. He is also interested in critical approaches to the geopolitics of the Spanish language. He is currently researching the contribution of the national film industry to the domestic and international promotion of a renewed image of Spain. He is past President of the Association for Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia and Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In 2008 he received the Spanish Order of Civil Merit for his contribution to the study of Spanish language and culture in Australia.

Thursday 10 November 2011
6.30pm
Public Lecture Theatre
Ground Floor, Old Arts Building
University of Melbourne

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Alfredo
• faculty
• arts
• spanish
• film
• Pedro
• Almodóvar