"Comparative Cinema" publishes its issue No. 25, "The Body Without Limits. The Monstrous-Feminine in Spanish Cinema"
"Comparative Cinema" publishes its issue No. 25, "The Body Without Limits. The Monstrous-Feminine in Spanish Cinema"
"Comparative Cinema" publishes its issue No. 25, "The Body Without Limits. The Monstrous-Feminine in Spanish Cinema"
The monograph "The Body Without Limits. The Monstrous-Feminine in Spanish Cinema" revolves around the continuing relevance and transformations of the concept of the monstrous-feminine as formulated by Barbara Creed, taking as its central axis its—until now little explored—dialogue with Spanish cinema. Building on the theoretical impact of The Monstrous-Feminine within horror film studies, the dossier examines how women move beyond the position of passive victims to embody what the patriarchal order fears, projecting its anxieties onto female bodies marked by abjection, maternity, possession or alterity. From late Francoism to contemporary cinema, the contributions analyse how these forms of the monstrous-feminine cut across both horror and other genres, revealing tensions between victimhood and agency, and between symbolic imposition and political reappropriation. The monograph combines an extensive interview with Creed—where the theorist revisits and expands her conceptual framework through readings of canonical and recent Spanish films—with articles that address genealogies of monstrous motherhood, feminist re-readings of body horror, intersections with queer, religious and racial perspectives, and case studies ranging from exploitation cinema to found footage and the Feminist New Wave of women filmmakers. Taken together, the issue proposes a critical cartography of the female body as a site of conflict, resistance and resignification, showing how, in the twenty-first century, the monstrous can become a form of agency capable of destabilising law, language and patriarchal fantasies of femininity.
Editorial
Sergi Sánchez
El cuerpo sin límites. El monstruoso-femenino en el cine español
Films en discussió
Edurne Larumbe Villareal
The Monstrous-Feminine Then and Now: An Interview with Barbara Creed
Itxaso del Castillo Aira, Alejandro Melero
Itxaso del Castillo and Alejandro Melero. Dialogue on the Monstrous-Feminine in Spanish Cinema
Articles
Fernando Sánchez López
Mireia Trias Alguacil
Devolverle a la madre la vida. Una posible genealogía de la maternidad monstruosa en el cine español
Elinor Dolliver
Tristana Medeiros and the Inhibited Feminist Potential of [REC]’s Monstrous-Feminine
Erika Tiburcio Moreno
Irene Baena Cuder
Abject Births and the Monstrous-Feminine in Álex de la Iglesia’s Witching and Bitching and 30 Coins
Rear Window
Breigh Plat
Reviews
Daniel Grandes Rodríguez
Sergi Sánchez
Zulueta, Iván. 2025. Diario de Nueva York. Pepitas de Calabaza/Filmoteca Española. 245 pp.
Documents
Ignacio Albornoz
Las atracciones o el otro propósito del cine
Tom Gunning
Metáforas coloridas: la atracción del color en el cine de los orígenes
Tom Gunning
La atracción del movimiento: la representación moderna y la imagen del movimiento
Tom Gunning