The academic resistance that cultural studies has encountered remains especially visible in Eastern and Southern European countries. One such example is Spain, where cultural studies is seen at best as an emergent research field. Hence the interest of this volume, conceived in Spain by an all-Spanish editorial team and written by a diverse range of authors who prove that, in spite of all difficulties, cultural studies continues to bloom - even in Southern and Eastern Europe. The different chapters offer interdisciplinary insights into a wide selection of cultural materials whose relevance goes well beyond purely aesthetic issues. Altogether, the volume (1) provides interesting theoretical reflections on the subtle (yet arbitrary) borders between popular and canonical culture; (2) explores how the popular culture of yesteryear has influenced and inspired later canonical cultural materials; and (3) studies how the reception of, and representation in, popular culture can be accounted for from the crucially relevant perspectives of gender and age. This collection of essays studies and explores the connections between a wide range of materials, including relevant examples of classic and contemporary literature, Arthuriana, pop music and videos, political and mainstream film, newspaper advertising, television, and the phenomenon of the (trans)media star.
About the Author: Jose Igor Prieto-Arranz, Patricia Bastida-Rodriguez, Marta Fernandez-Morales and Cristina Suarez-Gomez are all Senior Lecturers in English at the University of the Balearic Islands. Dr Jose Igor Prieto-Arranz's main research interests are SLA and cultural studies, especially identity issues, on which he has published widely. Dr Patricia Bastida-Rodriguez specialises in gender studies and British literature, on which she has authored and edited several volumes. Her current research focuses on gender and urban mobility in recent diasporic fiction. Dr Caterina Calafat-Ripoll lectures in French Studies at the University of the Balearic Islands. She has ample experience as a conference interpreter and literary translator, and has researched in the fields of translation, FLT, and transculturality in the English- and French-speaking worlds. Dr Marta Fernandez-Morales's main field of research is American literature and gender studies, with a main focus on American theatre, film and television. Overall, she has authored or co-authored eight volumes. Dr Cristina Suarez-Gomez is the lead researcher in the project Morphosyntactic Variation in New Englishes, and specialises in English historical syntax, historical sociolinguistics, and dialectal variation, both in a synchronic and a diachronic perspective.