The interaction between spanish fiction cinema and tourism: historical-thematic development, cultural, political and economic keys.

Ref. HAR2011-27750. Financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) of the Spanish Government.

Summary

The project derives from the hypothesis which considers cinema, in its condition of being an essential element of visual culture, as a first-rate agent in the configuration of the imaginary national identitary.

The general objective is to analyse the main interactions between Spanish fiction cinema and tourism. The specific objective will be to determine in which way, to what extent and which are the socio-cultural consequences that the spanish cinema has been including in its films the theme of tourism. This tendency dates back to the very origins of the spanish cinematographic production and nowadays, with more intensity if posible, still remains in force.

Methodologically, in order to achieve the objectives, we will work with a wide corpus of films. This corpus is made up of representative titles which, throughout the history of the spanish cinema, have dealt with the subject of tourism. The analysis of the corpus will enable us to detect the cultural themes and stereotypes which that film has handled – in order to mark the autochthonous identity traits or characterise those of others – with the aim of defining whether and how they have evolved over time and determine their possible causes.

The theoretical approach and the analytical perspective will be plural and interdisciplinary, integrating theories, methods and techniques from textual analysis and cinematographic discourse, as well as from the history of cinema and social sciences.

Results

Part of the research results were disseminated from the collective book, Turistas de película, and their depictions of the hispanic cinema. Madrid, Biblioteca Nueva, 2013. The other ones were published in articles of national and international specialized magazines (see Publications).