This book presents the first English introduction to the broad history of the Gothic mode in Spain. It focuses on key literary periods, such as Romanticism, the fin-de-siecle, spiritualist writings of the early-twentieth century, and the cinematic and literary booms of the 1970s and 2000s. With illustrative case studies, Aldana Reyes demonstrates how the Gothic mode has been a permanent yet ever-shifting fixture of the literary and cinematic landscape of Spain since the late-eighteenth century. He proposes that writers and filmmakers alike welcomed the Gothic as a liberating and transgressive artistic language.


"Aldana Reyes's new book will become the go-to text on Spanish Gothic. The historical sweep of his work brings forth new insights on the reach of the Gothic beyond the Anglophone and reveals Spanish culture as steeped in a tradition that is as familiar worldwide as it is peculiarly its own." (Prof Ann Davies, Chair in Spanish and Latin American Studies at Stirling University, UK, and author of Contemporary Spanish Gothic (2016)) "Worthwhile literary criticism aspires to three not always compatible goals: originality, erudition and clarity. Aldana Reyes achieves all three in his ambitious, rewarding Spanish Gothic, an impressively researched book that maps unexplored common ground for scholars of Gothic and Hispanic Studies alike." (Christopher B. Weimer, Professor of Spanish at Oklahoma State University, USA) "Spanish Gothic is a fine pioneering study and an appealing invitation to include 'Gothic' in the theoretical vocabulary about the fantastic produced and consumed in Spain. Aldana Reyes shows that Spanish writers and filmmakers firmly belong in transnational, transmedia Gothic while providing Spanish Gothic with a distinct identity." (Dr Sara Martin Alegre, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain)

About the Author
Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes is Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, and a founding member of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies. His books include Horror: A Literary History (editor; 2016), Horror Film and Affect (2016), Digital Horror (co-editor; 2015) and Body Gothic (2014).

Reviews
"Spanish Gothic is a valuable and revealing introduction to an exotic locale whose sun-drenched vistas would make it an unlikely place for gothic gloom, and yet Aldana Reyes shows how and why it has prospered even there." (Dejan Ognjanovic, Rue Morgue, Vol.178, September-October, 2017)

"The book provides a compelling account of how the gothic was able to pervade (or infect) a variety of genres and modes in Spain during this period. He characterises the gothic as transhistorical, transmedial and transgeneric, materialising in romantic literature, didactic fiction ... and cinema. ... in giving us the most complete account to date (in English, at least) of this mode in Spain, Spanish Gothic also illustrates the transnational nature of the Gothic as it travelled beyond its original 'homes'." (Dr. Leon Hunt, Viewfinder Online, bufvc.ac. uk, June, 2017)"Spanish Gothic is an exemplary piece of scholarship that will assuredly become the cornerstone of future studies of gothic cultural production in Spain. It will, moreover, undoubtedly contribute to new transnational histories of gothic as it developed on a global scale from the eighteenth century to today." (Christina Morin, The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, Vol. 16, 2017)




Book Information
ISBN 9781137306005
Author Xavier Aldana Reyes
Format Hardback
Page Count 241
Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan
Weight(grams) 457g