Description
Book SynopsisThe Spanish terms cursi and cursileria are not easily translated, but they refer to a cultural phenomenon widely prevalent in Spanish society since the nineteenth century. This book examines the social meanings of cursi, viewing it as a window into modern Spanish history and particularly into the development of middle-class culture.
Trade Review“Noël Valis offers brilliant, innovative insights into a cultural phenomenon that illuminates many aspects of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Spain. As perhaps one of the most distinguished cultural critics of Hispanic studies today, Valis takes an interdisciplinary approach to expose the links between text, economics, politics, and historical events.”—Harriet S. Turner, University of Nebraska
“Noël Valis's writing is powerful and insightful. Her arguments are brilliant, subtle, and carefully textured; they cleverly elucidate the duality of cursi. This is an important, imaginative, fully accomplished book that will be essential reading for anyone interested in understanding more fully the cultural and literary realities of Spain a century ago.”—David T. Gies, University of Virginia
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. On Origins
2. Adorning the Feminine, or the Language of Fans
3. Salon Poets, the Becquer Craze, and Romanticism
4. Textual Economies: The Embellishment of Credit
5. Fabricating History
6. The Dream of Negation
7. The Margins of Home: Modernist Cursileria
8. The Culture of Nostalgia, or the Language of Flowers
9. Coda: The Metaphor of Culture in Post-Franco Spain
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
