Description
Book SynopsisBarcelonan Okupas: Squatter Power! is the first book to combine close-readings of the representations of Spanish squatters known as okupas with the study of everyday life, built environment, and city planning in Barcelona. Vilaseca broadens the scope of Spanish cultural studies by integrating into it notions of embodied cognition and affect that respond to the city before and against the fixed relations of capitalism. Social transformation, as demonstrated by the okupas, is possible when city and art interrelate, not through capital or the urbanization of consciousness but through bodily thought. The okupas reconfigure the way thoughts, words, images and bodily responses are linked by evoking and communicating the idea of free exchange and openness through art (poetry, music, performance art, the plastic arts, graffiti, urban art and cinema); and by acting out and rehearsing these ideas in the practice of squatting. The okupas challenge society to differentiate the images and representations instituted by state domination or capitalist exploitation from the subversive potential of imagination. The okupas unify theory and practice, word and body, in pursuit of a positive, social vision that might serve humanity and lead the way out of the current problems caused by capitalism.
Trade ReviewVilaseca’s study accomplishes its overall goal of introducing readers to the Barcelonan Okupas, their socio-political context, their history, and the many ways that they are seen and presented by themselves and others. The book’s index is clear and thorough, and the bibliography includes URLs to help readers locate the Internet sources Vilaseca incorporates and analyzes. This text will be a useful resource for undergraduates as well as graduate students and professors of Spanish, cultural, and media studies. * Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Okupas and the Entanglement of Word and Body in Barcelona The Wall Poem 1. Meet the Barcelonan Okupas (1997-2011) Defining Okupas The Originality of Okupas Okupas and Indignados: A Strategy of Alliance 2. Okupación: Just Crime or Justifiable Protest? Newspapers Judges Divisions within the Tripartite 3. Representations of Okupas by Non-okupas Part I: Okupas, Catalanism, and Culture-Producing Factories in El cor de la ciutat Part II: Live, Laugh, Love: Squatting as Romantic Comedy and Problem-Free Philosophy in El Kaserón Part III: Between the Capitalist Monster and Monstrous Creativity: Literature about Okupas 4.Representations of Okupas by Okupas Part I: Nocturnal Politics in the Spanish film El taxista ful Part II: Jump Out the Window with Vicente Escolar Bautista in Libro de un 8/1 tumbado en el espejo (ocho cuartos de gasto…partido por uno) Conclusion: Sharing Ideas: Okupas and the U.S. Bibliography Index About the Author
