Antes eterna o negra que rota: Ay, Carmela! and the Mythic Unity of Spain

Appreciation of cinematic production from Spain has flourished over the past decades as, from a hesitant start, the discipline now covers all elements of film study and equals in its breadth the scholarship devoted to more established areas of European cinematography. An abiding problem in this process, however, has been the accommodation within this framework of the constituent national subcultures. The case of Catalonia is paradigmatic in this respect as its contribution has tended to sit uncomfortably within the discrete configuration of ‘Spanish’ and, as a consequence, has tended to suffer from exclusion or else be treated as an adjunct,