Penelope Cruz

Description

Part of a vanguard of Spanish talent claiming success at home and in Hollywood, Penelope Cruz is one of the best known European stars today. Focusing on Cruz's key films and their surrounding discourse, Ann Davies charts the development of Cruz's star persona both at home and abroad and the questions, difficulties and pleasures it inspires.

ANN DAVIES is a Senior Lecturer in Spanish at Newcastle University, UK, and a member of the AHRC Peer Review College. Her primary field of research is that of Spanish and Latin American cinema. Courses previously and currently taught include: MA module on Pedro Almodovar, MA module on gender, theory and film, MA module on vampire in film, National Identities in Catalonia and the Basque Country, Recent Spanish and Mexican Cinema and Latin American and Spanish Culture and Politics. In 2007, Ann Davies was awarded a grant under the AHRC matching leave scheme, to carry out research on Daniel Calparsoro and Basque Cinema, and a British academy overseas conference grant. Her publications include: The Metamorphoses of Don Juan's Woman: Early Parity to Late Modern Pathology (Edwin Mellen Press, 2004) The Trouble with Men: Exploring Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema, co-edited with Phil Powrie and Bruce Babington (Wallflower Press, 2004) Carmen: From Silent Film to MTV, co-edited with Chris Perriam (Rodolpi, 2005) Almodovar: Critical Guide to Spanish Texts (Grant and Cutler, 2007) Making Waves Anniversary Volume: Women in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, co-edited with Parvathi Kumaraswami and Claire Williams (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008) Daniel Calparsoro (Manchester University Press, 2009) Spain on Screen: Developments in Contemporary Cinema, as editor (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming) Spanish Spaces: Landscape, Space and Place in Contemporary Spanish Culture (Liverpool University Press, forthcoming)