Category Archives: Spain

Pedro Almodovar’s “La piel que habito”: Science and Technology as Postmodern Mediums

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

I feel very lucky to have been able to spend the month of June in Spain, first in Madrid for nearly 3 weeks (with a day trip to Segovia), then in Santiago de Compostela for a few days during a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Science and Medicine, Spain, Women | Tagged art, femininity, film, gender, La piel que habito, madrid, medicine, Pedro Almodovar, postmodernism, prado, pseudoscience, Santiago de Compostela, science, technology, Titian, velazquez, Venus | 4 Comments

Breastfeeding in the Prado: Religious, Mythological, and Pagan Roots

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Don’t worry! This isn’t a too-much-information personal anecdote… just some observations I made regarding the very frequent and detailed depictions of breastfeeding in the artwork gracing the Prado’s walls. Having initially visited Madrid’s Museo del Prado in 2001 for my … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Spain, Women | Tagged art, breastfeeding, catholicism, madrid, maternity, motherhood, museo del prado, Rubens, Spain, spanish art, velazquez, virgin mary | 10 Comments

Bicycles, typewriters, and sex!?!? Cultures of the Erotic in early 20th Century Spain

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Among the many articles and books I consulted for my last article on La Venus mecánica, Maite Zubiaurre’s Cultures of the Erotic in Spain, 1898-1939 (from Vanderbilt UP, 2012) was by far my favorite. Not only does Prof. Zubiaurre‘s monograph … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Literature, Modernity, Spain | Tagged 1920s, art, books, erotica, Eugenics, gender, Hildegart Rodríguez, literature, madrid, modernity, pseudoscience, sex, sexuality, Spain, spanish art, spanish literature | 6 Comments

The Morphing Body: Salvador Dalí’s Skulls and the Female Form

Posted on May 6, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

I’m currently working on an article that revolves around theories of corporeality and the body, so I’ve been reading a range of feminist interpretations of the subject: Elizabeth Grosz‘s challenge to mind/body dualism by way of the Moebius strip paradigm; … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Modernity, Spain, Surrealism, Women | Tagged 1950s, art, body, Dalí, femininity, gender, modernity, nudes, photography, Salvador Dali, sex, sexuality, STDs, surrealism, venereal disease, women, World War II | 23 Comments

The Red Virgin: Motherhood and Power Dynamics

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

“I shall do as you request, and tell you everything about myself […] You may like me, but I am not alive.” –Hildegarte, played by Ivana Baquero in The Red Virgin “I will do as you ask and tell you … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, First-wave spanish feminism, History, Pedagogy, Science and Medicine, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, Aurora Rodriguez, Birth Control, books, Eugenics, Family Planning, film, first-wave spanish feminism, Gregorio Marañon, Havelock Ellis, Hildegart Rodríguez, madrid, maternity, medical history, motherhood, pedagogy, Red Virgin, sexuality, Spain, teaching spanish, women | 7 Comments

Picasso on Maternity and Motherhood

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

A few weeks ago, students in my Hispanic Women’s Literature course turned in their first paper on Carmen de Burgos’ La rampa. Part of their assignment was to include an image with their essay. One student selected the following painting, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, art, art history, books, femininity, maternity, Mother and Child, mother-child relationship, motherhood, Pablo Picasso, picasso, Spain, spanish art, women | 10 Comments

Pretty Women Use Birth Control – my guest post at Nursing Clio

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

I’m very excited to have written a guest post for one of my favorite blogs, Nursing Clio. For this piece, I re-visited my very first blog post in which I critiqued, with a sort of “literary analysis” approach, the function … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Science and Medicine, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, Birth Control, Eugenics, Family Planning, first-wave spanish feminism, gender, Marañón, maternity, medical history, Nursing Clio, pseudoscience, Spain, spanish, women | 1 Comment

The Dalí Triangle: A Surrealist’s Take on the Catalonian Landscape

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Lately I’ve been writing recommendation letters and filling out language evaluation forms for many of my students who are planning to study abroad during the upcoming academic year. Costa Rica… Ecuador… Argentina… Spain… with each request I find myself wishing … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Spain | Tagged 1920s, art, books, Catalonia, Dalí, Dalí paintings, Figueras, Fundación Gala-Salvador Dalí, photography, Portlligat, Salvador Dali, Spain, spanish art, study abroad, surrealism, teaching spanish | 10 Comments

Exploring Female Identities in Carmen de Burgos’ “La rampa”

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

One of the first novels to spark my interest in early twentieth-century Spanish women’s literature was Carmen de Burgos’ La rampa (1917). As an urban novel, the narrative explores the effects of modernity not only on the residents of and … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, First-wave spanish feminism, History, Literature, Modernity, Pedagogy, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, art, books, Carmen de Burgos, city, culture, femininity, Feminism, first-wave spanish feminism, gender, La rampa, literature, madrid, maternity, modernity, motherhood, pedagogy, Spain, spanish, spanish literature, teaching, teaching spanish, urban studies, women | 16 Comments

The Perfect Wife in the 21st century: “La perfecta casada” en el siglo XXI

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Now that February is suddenly here, the Spring 2014 semester is officially underway and I am finally organized (well, for the most part!). For me, the most exciting part about this new semester is that I’m teaching a course I … Continue reading →