New York as Theatre of Spanish Modernity

3 points · University catalogue

From the beginning of the XXth Century some of the key figures of Spanish contemporary culture, writers, filmmakers or architects, had a very close relationship to New York, sometimes as travelers, sometimes living in the city for long periods of time. That transatlantic contact, far from anecdotal, turned into an essential element of the self-understanding of those authors and a crucial presence in their work. The contact with New York modernity would be an unavoidable component in their own versions of modernity but their presence would also leave an important trace in the city. As yet more Spanish cultural travelers got in contact with the city a different phenomenon developed: from the 1950’s, New York would be used as a privileged stage to project a certain institutional idea of Spain, to sell a refurbished image of the nation as sophisticated and modern after decades of international marginalization under Francoism. This course will develop a comparative study of both processes as seen in literary sources, film and architecture (García Lorca, Camba, Dalí, Tápies, Buñuel, Loriga, Sert, Calatrava…)