Inhabiting the in-Between

Sarah Thomas is Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies and the William A. Dyer, Jr. Assistant Professor of the Humanities at Brown University.

"Thomas has crafted a meticulously documented study that is theoretically sound, insightful, and nimbly written. This monograph will be of great interest to a wide readership, especially those interested in Iberian Studies and film criticism. As such, Thomas's monograph on in-betweenness and childhood in selected films from the Long Transition is a welcome contribution to the field." - John Margenot (Hispania) "The innovative and convincing interpretations of Inhabiting the In-Between recommend themselves to the reader with an insistence upon the narrative and psychological complexity of these films. Beyond its substantial contribution to Spanish film studies, this book urges one to be aware that the liminality of childhood and adolescence is brief, irretrievable, and when neglected, can amount to a missed opportunity."- Elizabeth Scarlett, (Revista de Estudios Hispánicos) "Sarah Thomas' Inhabiting the In-Between is a beautifully written study of a still under-examined period in Spain's recent history, the Transition to Democracy, that trains its focus on the emergent figure of the child protagonist in the lesser-known works by art house and lesser-studied popular cinema directors. Thomas grounds the child in national moments of import as she follows film scholars Vicky LeBeau, Karen Lury, and Emma Wilson in exploring this figure in filmic and philosophical inquiry that inflects, in varying degrees, the bildungsfilm, the haptic and the gaze, biopolitics, historical memory, queer studies, and cultural geography beyond the bounds of Iberian film and history. As this list suggests, Inhabiting the In-Between exhibits a productive interdisciplinary, or fluid theoretical inbetweenness."- Erin K. Hogan, University of Maryland Baltimore County (Ciberletras) "Inhabiting the In-Between is perceptive, original, clearly written, and a welcome addition to the slim collection of innovative studies of Spanish films during the transition from Dictatorship to Democracy."- Soledad Fox Maura, Williams College (The Seminary Co-op) "Beyond its substantial contribution to Spanish film studies, this book urges one to be aware that the liminality of childhood and adolescence is brief, irretrievable, and when neglected, can amount to a missed opportunity."- Elizabeth Scarlett, State University of New York at Buffalo (Revista de Estudios Hispánicos) "Thomas builds on already existing scholarship in the field of childhood in cinema to provide a valuable contribution to the study of the child in Spanish cinema."- Gemma Haigh, University of Birmingham (Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies)

• AcknowledgementsNote on Translation and Dates Introduction: Inhabiting the In-Between1. Impossible Returns: The Child as Self and Other in Carlos Saura's El jardín de las delicias (1970) and La prima Angélica (1974)2. Innocent Creatures: Child as Commodity and Animal in Mercero's La guerra de papá (1977) and Tobi, el niño con alas (1978)3. Oscillating Encounters: Alignment and Foreclosure in Víctor Erice's El espíritu de la colmena (1973) and El sur (1983)4. Betwixt and Between: Liminal Adolescence in Jaime de Armiñán's El amor del capitán Brando (1974) and El nido (1980)Coda Bibliography Notes