(Press-News.org) This news release is available in Spanish.
This research studies the presence and visibility of the gay world in Spanish cinema between 1940 and 1975. The report, published in the journal Zer by Alejandro Melero, professor in the UC3M Department of Journalism and Audiovisual Communication, shows that there were genres that homosexuality appeared in more frequently. One such genre is comedy, in which it was very usual to portray gays as funny characters.
Beyond our borders—and in sharp contrast to Spanish cinema—directors like Alfred Hitchcock were forerunners in the representation of homosexuality, "suggesting the existence of this reality without making it evident," as in the case of the film Rope, from 1948. According to Professor Melero, during the transition to democracy in Spain, the claims of the gay world were "legalized" for the first time and there was a normalization of a cultural tradition of paradigms and archetypes of characters passed from one generation to the next.
"What we can now label as 'gay cinema' or 'homosexual character' was not designated that way in the Franco era. Characters that at present we could call 'gays' would not have been recognized as such by audiences from the period," says Melero. For example, in Los ojos dejan huellas (1952), by José Luis Sáenz de Heredia, there are no homosexuals, only confusion that might suggest their homosexuality.
Strategies against Censorship
The research carried out by Alejandro Melero analyzes models for overcoming the censorship of the Franco era: implicit condemnation and the character as a subject of ridicule were the strategies used by screenplay writers, directors and producers, who this way passed through the filter established by the Office of Film Censorship. The study highlights the use of limits between the denotation and the connotation of homosexuality. As Melero explains: "One appeals to the personal connotation that each of us can make, defending the character or the scene by a denotation that is not related to homosexuality."
One director who used homosexuality as an instrument of humor was Mariano Ozores. In films like Operación cabaretera (1967), according to Melero, "Mariano Ozores's comic actors engage in outrageous behaviour with ease and have license to break all the taboos, including homosexuality."
INFORMATION:
Further information:
La representación de la homosexualidad en el cine de la dictadura franquista. Melero, A. (2014). Zer 19-36, pp. 189-204. ISSN: 1137-1102
Watch video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUwuddLmzkU
Comedy, the refuge of gays in Franco-era cinema
2014-07-02
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Research could lead to dramatic energy savings at data farms
2014-07-02
PULLMAN, Wash. - Washington State University has developed a wireless network on a computer chip that could reduce energy consumption at huge data farms by as much as 20 percent.
Researchers led by Partha Pande, a computer engineering professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, have filed two patents on their wireless multicore chip design, which could also speed up data processing. The team, which includes associate professors Deukhyoun Heo and Benjamin Belzer, has a paper on their work in the May issue of ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies ...
Alcohol backing raises risk of athletes drinking more
2014-07-02
Alcohol sponsorship and hazardous drinking in UK athletes are linked, a new study has found.
The research, led by Monash University and the University of Manchester, is the first to examine alcohol sponsorship of athletes in the UK, and comes at a time when there are calls in Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland, and South Africa for greater restriction or bans on alcohol sponsorship and advertising in sport. The research was published today in the scientific journal Addiction.
The researchers surveyed more than 2000 sportspeople from universities in the North West, ...
Flood fear has temporary effect on property prices: QUT study
2014-07-02
The stigma of buying in a flood-prone suburb after the 2011 Brisbane floods was short-lived for middle and high-value homes with property prices rebounding within 12-months, a QUT study has found.
Property economics expert Professor Chris Eves, from QUT's Science and Engineering Faculty, studied the short-term impact of the 2011 flood on the Brisbane residential housing market and found flood fear had a minimal on-going effect on property prices, with low-value suburbs being the exception.
"What we found was that because people in the higher-value suburbs (St Lucia, ...
Making dreams come true: Making graphene from plastic?
2014-07-02
Graphene is gaining heated attention, dubbed a "wonder material" with great conductivity, flexibility and durability. However, graphene is hard to come by due to the fact that its manufacturing process is complicated and mass production not possible. Recently, a domestic research team developed a carbon material without artificial defects commonly found during the production process of graphene while maintaining its original characteristics. The newly developed material can be used as a substitute for graphene in solar cells and semiconductor chips. Further, the developed ...
New approach for tuberculosis drugs
2014-07-02
Consumption was one of the worst known diseases of the 18th century. Thanks to medical advances, the number of deaths from this lung disease – which is today known as tuberculosis – has declined significantly. Efforts to eradicate the disease in the 1950s and 1960s resulted in a wide range of new drugs entering the market.
And yet 1.4 million people still continue to die each year from tuberculosis. Multidrug-resistant strains of the disease-causing pathogen are especially dangerous because they can no longer be treated with today's drugs (see box). "In the past 50 years, ...
Foodborne bacteria not as harmless to chickens as previously thought
2014-07-02
Foodborne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni, which results in more than 300,000 cases of food poisoning each year in England and Wales, had previously not been considered to cause disease in chickens and the bacteria were thought to be part of the normal microbe environment of the birds.
Reader in Foodborne Zoonoses, Dr Paul Wigley, explains: "Our findings change the way we view the biology of this bacterial infection. It can cause problems in the gut, as it does in humans, but when the chickens walk through the wet excrement left in their bedding it can damage their feet ...
Fine-scale climate model projections predict malaria at local levels
2014-07-02
Fine-scale climate model projections suggest the possibility that population centers in cool, highland regions of East Africa could be more vulnerable to malaria than previously thought, while population centers in hot, lowland areas could be less vulnerable, according to a team of researchers. The team applied a statistical technique to conventional, coarse-scale climate models to better predict malaria dynamics at local levels.
"People might have an interest in predictions for global malaria trends and even more so for regional patterns, but they probably care most ...
Food allergies: A new, simple method to track down allergens
2014-07-02
Although food allergies are common, sufferers often don't know exactly what in foods cause their allergic reactions. This knowledge could help develop customized therapies, like training the body's immune system to respond to certain proteins found in foods. However, determining which protein in a food causes an allergic response to a patient requires time-consuming tests that often ignore rare or unexpected allergens. Publishing in Analytical Chemistry, EPFL scientists have developed a highly-sensitive method that can quickly and accurately identify the culprit proteins ...
Socioeconomic status associated with peripheral artery disease risk
2014-07-02
Previous research has established a link between lower socioeconomic status and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. In a new study led by Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), researchers have found that there are also higher rates of peripheral artery disease (PAD) in individuals with low income and lower attained education levels in the United States.
These findings are published online ahead of print in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
"Our finding highlights the need to focus on education and advocacy efforts for these at-risk populations," ...
Reinterpreting dark matter
2014-07-02
This news release is available in Spanish.
In cosmology, cold dark matter is a form of matter the particles of which move slowly in comparison with light, and interact weakly with electromagnetic radiation. It is estimated that only a minute fraction of the matter in the Universe is baryonic matter, which forms stars, planets and living organisms. The rest, comprising over 80%, is dark matter and energy.
The theory of cold dark matter helps to explain how the universe evolved from its initial state to the current distribution of galaxies and clusters, the structure ...