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Rethinking Genre in Contemporary Global Cinema pp 79–89Cite as

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The En-Genrement of the Nation: The Spanish Civil War Film and Guillermo del Toro’s Fantasies

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Abstract

In this chapter, Egea uses Spanish film as a case study to test Rick Altman’s (1999) hypothesis on the usefulness of genre theory “to help us think about nations.” To do so, he analyses several films that return to the Spanish civil war and its historical trauma. Egea discusses how Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and The Devil’s Backbone (2001) revisit that historical event and subject it to what he calls a process of “en-gerement” by which the Spanish civil war film enters a new framework but also new markets. Ultimately, Egea proposes reversing the terms of Altman’s hypothesis and asks how, in a time of globalized cultural industries, the nation itself can help us think about genre theory.

Keywords

  • Genre theory
  • Spanish film
  • Civil war
  • Guillermo del Toro

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  • DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-90134-3_6
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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UW-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Juan F. Egea

Authors
  1. Juan F. Egea
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Correspondence to Juan F. Egea .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom

    Dr. Silvia Dibeltulo

  2. NUI Galway, Galway, Ireland

    Dr. Ciara Barrett

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Egea, J.F. (2018). The En-Genrement of the Nation: The Spanish Civil War Film and Guillermo del Toro’s Fantasies. In: Dibeltulo, S., Barrett, C. (eds) Rethinking Genre in Contemporary Global Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90134-3_6

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