Books by Álvaro Albarrán Gutiérrez
Articles by Álvaro Albarrán Gutiérrez
Atlantic Studies: Global Currents, 2025
This article examines the staged readings of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart performed in Spain b... more This article examines the staged readings of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart performed in Spain between 1991 and 1994 under the title Un cor normal. By connecting these interventions to the political, social, and cultural context that served as their backdrop, namely, the rise of HIV/AIDS activism in Spain, the paper explores the production history and the popular and critical reception these staged readings earned. In essence, this study expands on original archival work and interviews, combining unedited material sources with the testimonies of the theatre professionals and activists involved in the project to reconstruct the staged readings in their particular historical-social context. In so doing, this paper elucidates the historical relevance of this transatlantic exchange between the US and Spanish stages, evincing how, although barred from the professional stage, the play contributed to breaking the silence surrounding HIV/AIDS and spreading awareness about a disease still considered taboo in Spain.
Atlantis: Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies, 2024
The presence of pictorial art in the various film adaptations of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and ... more The presence of pictorial art in the various film adaptations of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been traditionally expounded as part of an exercise in stylization and historical localization. Elaborating upon a comparative and revisionist approach, which draws on Douglas Lanier’s (2014) “rhizomatic” methodology, this paper reexamines the interaction between pictorial art and film rhetorics in the five major sound film adaptations of the play released, to date, for Western mainstream audiences. Exploring a representative selection of scenes evidences how the use of pictorial material in these productions aims to satisfy an aesthetic and historicist need while also serving a dialogic and discursive function. In so doing, this study demonstrates that Romeo and Juliet sound film adaptations have made use of pictorial art as a means to (re)negotiate the meaning of the literary text in response to their particular historical-social conditions and commercial interests. Ultimately, therefore, the analysis posits these productions as distinct ekphrastic media and proposes that they be reassessed as complex semiotic configurations, founded upon an exercise of textual, pictorial and kinetic transmediatization.
Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 2024
Philologia Hispalensis, 2020
Resumen: El presente documento tiene como objeto el estudio de la oda "A Roosevelt" (1904) de Rub... more Resumen: El presente documento tiene como objeto el estudio de la oda "A Roosevelt" (1904) de Rubén Darío a través de la aplicación de una metodología de análisis revisionista basada en una lectura detallada del texto que permita elucidar la presencia y transcendencia de los distintos discursos raciales y socioculturales que constituyen la base ideológica del mismo. Tras una breve introducción al contexto histórico, político y cultural en que el poema fue producido, el documento examina detalladamente los rasgos constitutivos que el poeta adscribe a las comunidades estadounidense e hispanoamericana en su intento de establecer a ambos pueblos dentro de una relación de complementación u oposición binaria. En última instancia, el análisis realizado demuestra cómo la imagen de EE. UU. e Hispanoamérica que Darío delinea a lo largo del texto se articula en base a los discursos panlatinistas y antiamericanistas que proliferaron a finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX como respuesta a las tentativas expansionistas del gobierno norteamericano, abogando por la unión de los pueblos de Centro y Sudamérica frente a su enemigo común.
Atlantis: Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies, 2018
Traditional research has focused on the figure of Philip Freneau (1752-1832) as the champion of t... more Traditional research has focused on the figure of Philip Freneau (1752-1832) as the champion of the late-eighteenth-century North American colonies’ idiosyncrasy rather than on the reasons why Romantic and Neoclassical fashions coexist in his poetry. The present study aims to broaden current critical horizons by exploring the presence of a systematic pattern within Freneau’s poetic production wherein the Neoclassical and Romantic literary traditions lie in complementary distribution—a distribution conditioned by the public and private nature of the texts and explainable in terms of an underlying principle of literary homeostasis. The major features of a representative selection of Freneau’s poetic writings are thoroughly examined and correlated with the process whereby the author’s private and public identities are constructed. Ultimately, the analysis evinces Philip Freneau’s deliberate use of poetry as an esthetic conduit meant for individual and communal self-representation and elaboration.
Proceedings by Álvaro Albarrán Gutiérrez
Bridging Cultures: English and American Studies in Spain, 2023
The aim of this paper is to examine how monstrosity has been instrumentalized within both revolut... more The aim of this paper is to examine how monstrosity has been instrumentalized within both revolutionary and contemporary political propaganda as a privileged site for the articulation of an emerging politics of fear, founded upon a markedly populist bias, and directed towards the legitimation of a nationalistic project. By adopting a comparative methodology of analysis, this paper endeavors to evince how revolutionary poets and pamphleteers, on the one hand, and contemporary pundits and commentators, on the other hand, aim to rally popular support for their respective causes by appealing to an eminently monstrous imagery in which the absence of "Americanness" is equated to the absence of numerous basic human traits. Ultimately, this paper proves how revolutionary and contemporary propagandists in America appeal to a set of traditional monstrous motifs to advance their particular political and social agendas, rendering a collection of groups and communities, within and beyond national borders, as the dehumanized foil of a contrarily idealized American people.
Reviews by Álvaro Albarrán Gutiérrez
Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos, 2024
published. At the rare crossroads between financial self-help, autobiography, and bombastic self-... more published. At the rare crossroads between financial self-help, autobiography, and bombastic self-propaganda, the book promised to offer readers the keys towards professional success in business. Though several disputes concerning authorship clouded its later reception, the volume should be credited for its accuracy in recording what would prove to stand as one of the defining traits of the future fifty-fifth president of the U.S., namely, his relentless and, at times, predatory ambition. In the book, Trump (allegedly?) claimed as follows: "I like thinking big. I always have. To me it's very simple: if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big. Most people think small, because most people are afraid of success, afraid of making decisions, afraid of winning. And that gives people like me great advantage" (33). Regardless of the sympathy one may nourish for the former president, it is hard to deny that "thinking big" has been a staple of his life and career. Admittedly, it is an entirely different matter to assess whether such thinking has involved a sensible concern with the welfare of people other than himself or whether it has led him to succeed in his efforts to make America great "again" (whatever this slogan is supposed to mean). Trump: Breve historia de una presidencia singular, a volume published in Editorial Comares as part of its "Comares Historia" series, provides such an assessment with a well-written, thoroughly documented, and comprehensive grasp of the legacy of the late president of the U.S.
Other by Álvaro Albarrán Gutiérrez
This report explores the perspectives of the situation of HIV and sexual health in Spain from num... more This report explores the perspectives of the situation of HIV and sexual health in Spain from numerous stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, policymakers, civil servants, activists and artists. It employs a multidisciplinary analysis to distill key problems and issues: including significant rises in STIs, a process of sexual transformation, a crisis of identity and loneliness, and a lack of coordination among services. The report includes key recommendations. This report also includes a prologue by the Spanish Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla.
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Books by Álvaro Albarrán Gutiérrez
Articles by Álvaro Albarrán Gutiérrez
Proceedings by Álvaro Albarrán Gutiérrez
Reviews by Álvaro Albarrán Gutiérrez
Other by Álvaro Albarrán Gutiérrez