Bored to Distraction

Download or read book Bored to Distraction written by Claudia Schaefer and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines how recent Mexican and Spanish films act as untroubling distractions from everyday routines. Popular culture in the 1990s, especially cinema, can be considered a showcase for the accumulated hopes and fears of the twentieth century. From the promise of material goods to the profusion of despair, from devastating tragedy to exaggerated rapture, a dizzying array of images assaults the eye. Drawing on recent films from Mexico and Spain, Bored to Distraction navigates this visual terrain, from melodrama to horror, looking for what, if anything, might be excessive enough to rouse us from our comfortable everyday routines. Claudia Schaefer is Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at the University of Rochester and the author of Danger Zones: Homosexuality, National Identity, and Mexican Culture and Textured Lives: Women, Art, and Representation in Modern Mexico.