Postmodernity in Spanish Fiction and Culture

Author(s) Yaw Agawu-Kakraba

Language: English

Genre(s): Modern Languages

Series: Iberian and Latin American Studies

  • October 2010 · 224 pages ·216x138mm

  • · Hardback - 9780708322710
  • · eBook - pdf - 9780708322727
  • · eBook - epub - 9781783164097

About The Book

"Postmodernity in Spanish Fiction and Culture" is a compelling study that combines elements of cultural studies and literary studies in order to present an integrated cultural representation of the emergence of a postmodern social constitution of contemporary Spain. Marking a sweeping reposition from earlier works about postmodernity and postmodernism in Spain, "Postmodernity in Spanish Fiction and Culture" makes a strong connection between postmodernity as social and economic conditions that are the result of unique features of a Spain of the 20th and 21st century, and postmodernism as life-style experiences that manifest new cultural and artistic practices of the 1980s and beyond. The study examines postmodernity by relating it to those exclusive social and cultural experiences that are patently Spanish (the movida, desencanto, immigration, globalization, and terrorism) and concludes that by virtue of Spain's unique socio-cultural, economic, and political history, not only does the country emerge as one of the most postmodern of all European nations but also that the conditions that define the country's evolution from the mid 1980s to the present constitute a distinctively authentic postmodernity.

Endorsements

"Yaw Agawu-Kakraba sets out to demonstrate how postmodernity is a concept that can be applied not only to the Spain of the 1980s but also to the Spain of the twenty-first century. He extends the definition of postmodernity to encompass works that display not only the techniques of postmodernism but also its political and ethical ideology. Moving through very Spanish concepts such as "movida", " pasotismo "and" desencanto, "he attempts to reveal a profound postmodernity in contemporary letters, particularly in the works of Villena, Falcon, Umbral, Manas and various science fiction writers of the past decade. His goal is to analyze 'what really constitutes postmodernity within the Spanish context.' The book is a serious look at an important matter, is written with conviction and good close readings of the texts to offer a new window into contemporary Spanish literature and culture."--David T. Gies, University of Virginia

Contents

INTRODUCTION: TOWARDS A THEORETICAL EXPLORATION OF POSTMODERNITY IN SPAIN CHAPTER I: THE POSTMODERN SELF AND LIFESTYLE IN POSTMODERNITY: THE MOVIDA PHENOMENON CHAPTER II: DESENCANTO WITHIN THE MATRIX OF POSTMODERNITY CHAPTER III: DOWNWARD MOBILITY, DISQUIET, AND NIHILISM: POSTMODERNITY IN SPAIN AT THE EDGE OF THE MILLENNIUM CHAPTER IV: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? THE ALLEGORICAL PARADIGM OF SPANISH SCIENCE FICTION AND THE POSTMODERNIZED SPANISH CULTURE

About the Author(s)

Author(s): Yaw Agawu-Kakraba

Yaw Agawu-Kakraba is Professor of Spanish at Pennsylvania State University.

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