Queer Events: Post-deconstructive Subjectivities in Spanish Writing and Film 1960s-1990s(4 Contemporary Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures)

Queer Events studies the representations of queer subjectivities during the Spanish Transition era (1960s to 1990s), drawing on some of the most influential critical theorists and philosophers of our times (Gilles Deleuze, Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou). The book focuses on well-known Spanish authors and film-makers (Terenci Moix, Vicente Aranda) as well as on others who have merited far less critical attention so far (including Antonio Roig, Alberto Cardín, and the directors of the short-lived avant-garde film movement known as ‘Escuela de Barcelona’).

Table of Contents:
Preface page Acknowledgements List of Film Stills Introduction Queer Events: Locating the Universal in the Spanish Transition 1. Of Rats and Men: The Homosexual’s ‘Becoming-Animal’ in Antonio Roig’s Autobiographical Trilogy 2. Antigone in Hyde Park: Homosexuality and the Ethics of the Event in Antonio Roig’s Autobiographical Trilogy 3. How Does One Escape One’s Own Simulacrum? Time, Repetition and the ‘Asceticism’ of Being in Terenci Moix’s Autobiography 4. Deleuze no es únicamente severo: Time and Memory in the Films of the Escola de Barcelona 5. Saint Cardín: Sacredness, ‘Sinthomosexuality’ and the (Non-)Place of the Queer in the Spain of the Transition Conclusion A Queer ‘Passion for the Real’ Bibliography Index Contents

About the Author :
David Vilaseca was Professor of Hispanic Studies and Critical Theory at Royal Holloway, University of London, and author of Hindsight and the Real: Subjectivity in Gay Hispanic Autobiography (Peter Lang, 2003) and L’aprenentatge de la soledat (Edicions 3i4, 2008; winner of the 2007 Octubre Prize for Catalan fiction). He was killed in a traffic accident in London on 9 February 2010.

Review :
This is a challenging, compelling, and very well written book which builds on the author’s brilliant Hindsight and the Real in the double sense of taking further a highly significant exploration of representations of (roughly) the self in Spanish culture and of honing already startling skills of exposition of complex philosophical and cultural critical ideas. Chris Perriam ... readers will gain from his rigorous theoretical analyses an enriched and nuanced understanding of post-Francoist writing and film, and Spanish queer aesthetics and praxis. The book will surely be cited by scholars of these subjects for a long time to come, and will stand as a testament to the brilliant but all-too-short intellectual career of the author. Queer Events continues to question perceptions of the self, to deconstruct reassuring identity positions, and to interrogate the ethical engagement of writer and reader. Like his earlier work, Vilaseca’s ideas and material here are always thought-provoking, often challenging; though he was unable to continue that work himself, his work will continue nonetheless as an inspiration for others. Stuart Davis, Modern Language Review