Paul Ilie's theories of internal exile as well as Michel Foucault and Julia Kristeva on the problems of subjectivity guide the readings of the visual and verbal texts."--BOOK JACKET.

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) pitted conservative forces including the army, the Church, the Falange (fascist party), landowners, and industrial capitalists against the Republic, installed in 1931 and supported by intellectuals, the petite bourgeoisie, many campesinos (farm laborers), and the urban proletariat. Provoking heated passions on both sides, the Civil War soon became an international phenomenon that inspired a number of literary works reflecting the impact of the war on foreign and national writers. While the literature of the period has been the subject of scholarship, women's literary production has not been studied as a body of work in the same way that literature by men has been, and its unique features have not been examined. Addressing this lacuna in literary studies, this volume provides fresh perspectives on well-known women writers, as well as less studied ones, whose works take the Spanish Civil War as a theme. The authors represented in this collection reflect a wide range of political positions. Writers such as Maria Zambrano, Mercè Rodoreda, and Josefina Aldecoa were clearly aligned with the Republic, whereas others, including Mercedes Salisachs and Liberata Masoliver, sympathized with the Nationalists. Most, however, are situated in a more ambiguous political space, although the ethics and character portraits that emerge in their works might suggest Republican sympathies. Taken together, the essays are an important contribution to scholarship on literature inspired by this pivotal point in Spanish history.

This study focuses upon the work of the Catalan woman poet Maria-Mercè Marçal. It analyses the interaction between body and language in her first five books of poetry. Drawing on the Italian feminist thought of il pensiero della differenza sessuale, it examines the ways in which Marçal’s poetic images display her Catalan feminine subjectivity, including the function of the poet, the space of poetry and the representation of love. It also explores the potentiality of the space of poetry to reconstruct female identity and reconfigure reality. In addition, it unravels the way in which the poet uses poetry to express the love for the other whilst also extending the boundaries of the self. The central concern is to bridge the fissure between female experience and universal precepts on the art of poetry through the predominance of an embodied and natural iconography. This study presents Marçal’s poetic compositions within the international panorama of poetry and feminist studies and aims to open up new terrains of discussion in the field of language, body and writing.

This volume presents an overview of the issues and critical debates in the field of women's studies, including original essays by pioneering scholars as well as by younger specialists. New pathfinding models of theoretical analysis are balanced with a careful revisiting of the historical foundations of women's studies.

In this reference, Buffery and Marcer cover all of the areas historically inhabited by the Catalan people. These are, in order of size and population: Catalonia, which accounts for over half of the population of the Catalan-speaking areas; Valencia, with over a third; the Balearic Islands with just under 8 percent; and the Catalunya Nord, the Principality of Andorra, and the Catalan-speaking areas within Aragon, Murcia, and Alghero. The Historical Dictionary of the Catalans deals not only with the people who live in Catalonia, but with the language and culture of the Catalan countries as well. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 600 cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant persons, places, events, institutions, and aspects of culture, society, economy, and politics.

This collection of new essays examines the representation of the female self in recent novels written by Spanish women. The essays explore the myriad ways in which women's struggle with self-definition and self-fulfillment is contemplated in Spain during a time in which democracy has taken hold and women's rights have taken shape. Authors covered include Carmen Martin Gaite, Josefina Aldecoa, Rosa Montero, Dulce Chacon, Clara Sanchez, Lucia Etxebarria, Care Santos, Eugenia Rico, Espido Freire, and others.

This bibliography, listed alphabetically by authors of books and articles on Mercè Rodoreda, offers a detailed description of the content of more than two hundred studies on her work. In addition to Rodoreda’s narrative, the last decade has seen many more studies of her theater, poetry, painting, and early journalism. Also included is a comprehensive listing of editions and translations, as well as an index. The intention is to analyze and diffuse the great body of academic production on this worldwide representative of Catalan culture, with the hope that future studies can profit by a reading of pertinent existing scholarship on the subject. There are various kinds of publications, from congress proceedings and chapters in related studies to standard cultural periodicals and books from university or academic presses. Some are more specialized than others, and approaches are as varied as the authors, with focuses on comparative literature and influences, historical or biographical aspects, symbolic or thematic analyses, linguistic or pedagogical studies, psychological or formalistic viewpoints, narrative tendencies and techniques. Readers of Rodoredan scholarship will recognize the names of many of these contributors, but there are newer Rodoreda specialists represented as well.