Culture of Cursileria , livre ebook

423

pages

English

Ebooks

2003

Écrit par
Valis Noel Valis

Publié par
Duke University Press

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423

pages

English

Ebooks

2003

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Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

Duke University Press

Date de parution

16 janvier 2003

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780822384281

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

Not easily translated, the Spanish terms cursi and cursileria refer to a cultural phenomenon widely prevalent in Spanish society since the nineteenth century. Like "kitsch," cursi evokes the idea of bad taste, but it also suggests one who has pretensions of refinement and elegance without possessing them. In The Culture of Cursileria, Noel Valis examines the social meanings of cursi, viewing it as a window into modern Spanish history and particularly into the development of middle-class culture.Valis finds evidence in literature, cultural objects, and popular customs toargue that cursileria has its roots in a sense of cultural inadequacy felt by the lower middle classes in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Spain. The Spain of this era, popularly viewed as the European power most resistant to economic and social modernization, is characterized by Valis as suffering from nostalgia for a bygone, romanticized society that structured itself on strict class delineations. With the development of an economic middle class during the latter half of the nineteenth century, these designations began to break down, and individuals across all levels of the middle class exaggerated their own social status in an attempt to protect their cultural capital. While the resulting manifestations of cursileria were often provincial, indeed backward, the concept was-and still is-closely associated with a sense of home. Ultimately, Valis shows how cursileria embodied the disparity between old ways and new, and how in its awkward manners, airs of pretension, and graceless anxieties it represents Spain's uneasy surrender to the forces of modernity.The Culture of Cursileria will interest students and scholars of Latin America, cultural studies, Spanish literature, and modernity.

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Publié par

Duke University Press

Date de parution

16 janvier 2003

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780822384281

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

t h e c u l t u r e o f c u r s i l e r í a

The Culture of

C U R S I L E R Í A

Bad Taste, Kitsch, and Class in Modern Spain

N O Ë L V A L I S

Duke University Press

Durham & London 2002

∫2002 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper$ Designed by Rebecca Giménez Typeset in Monotype Fournier by Keystone Typesetting, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. This book has been supported generously by the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Education and Culture and United States Universities.

f o r c a l

C O N T E N T S

List of Illustrations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix

Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xi

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

1. On Origins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

2. Adorning the Feminine, or the Language of Fans. . . . . . . . . . .77

3. Salon Poets, the Bécquer Craze, and Romanticism. . . . . . . . . .118

4. Textual Economies: The Embellishment of Credit. . . . . . . . . .139

5. Fabricating History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .179

6. The Dream of Negation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .202

7. The Margins of Home: Modernist Cursilería. . . . . . . . . . . . .224

8. The Culture of Nostalgia, or the Language of Flowers. . . . . . .244

9. Coda: The Metaphor of Culture in Post-Franco Spain. . . . . . .277

Appendix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .303

Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .305

Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .353

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .393

L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S

1. Funeral coach for the mayor of Madrid, Enrique Tierno Galván, 2

2. Txomin Salazar’s cover forEl kitsch español,6

3. Camp portrait of Carmen Polo, Franco’s widow, by Enrique Costus, 6

4. Cover page ofDos meses en Andalucía en el verano de 1849,13

5. Cover page ofLa ﬁlocalia o arte de distinguir a los cursis de los que no lo son,55

6. Cover page ofLa familia de Sicur,61

7. Spanish fan adorned with female ﬁgure, circa 1890, 100

8. Postcard of actress María Palou, with fan, circa 1910, 101

9. Turn-of-the-century advertising cards, front and back, for fans and other ladies’ objects, 102

10. Cover of theLa ilustración artística,a special issue on poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, 125

11. Typical tomb and willow tree scene of mourning pictures, 153

12. Portrait of Pascual Madoz, 172

13. Víctor Miguel’s cover for the short story ‘‘Cómo caen las niñas cursis,’’ 229

14. The last page of Ramón Gómez de la Serna’s essay, ‘‘Lo cursi,’’ 237

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