'In this extraordinarily rich study, Erin Hogan helps us to understand the distinction of the child in Spanish cinema as well as its resilience. Using dialogism as theoretical frame of reference, this intelligent book shows how the child has been variously ventriloquised and how it has learned to talk back. Through exhilarating close readings of films which speak to one another through time or across geographical boundaries, the child transforms from biopolitical tool into a flexible icon with which to interrogate some of the most deeply held precepts of Spanish culture.' Sarah Wright, Royal Holloway, University of London This is the first genre study of child-starred cinemas from Spain. It illuminates continuities in the political use of the child protagonist in over fifty years of Spanish cinema and how the child-starred genres deploy the concept of childhood to retrospectively define the nation and its future. From Francoist popular to oppositional auteur films, and including Spanish and Latin American cinema, this monograph examines commonalities in aesthetics, narratives and genre functions. It demonstrates the impact of these narratives within Spanish film history and Francoist biopolitics, as well as providing a broader transatlantic perspective on the genre in select productions from Chile and Argentina. Erin K. Hogan teaches courses in Spanish literature and film and Latin American cinema at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Cover image: Pa negre, 2010, Agustí Villaronga (c) Massa d'or Produccions Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-3611-3 Barcode