Foucault, San Jerónimo, y la mujer fatal: apropiación y subversión de la iconografía religiosa en El espíritu de la colmena de Víctor Erice.

This article examines the symbolic value of one of the paintings in Victor Erice's acclaimed El espíritu de la colmena that has caused much perplexity among its commentators: that of the patriarch Saint Jerome we see presiding Fernando's study room and is later on associated with his daughter Isabel...

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Published in:Hispanic Research Journal Vol. 15; no. 2; pp. 149 - 167
Main Author: Jerez-Farràn, Carlos
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Apr2014
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Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: Foucault, San Jerónimo, y la mujer fatal: apropiación y subversión de la iconografía religiosa en El espíritu de la colmena de Víctor Erice.
      aug:
        au: Jerez-Farràn, Carlos
        affil: University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
      su:
        Symbolism in art
        Spanish painting
        Erice, Víctor, 1940-
        Spanish art
        Spanish politics & government, 1939-1975
        Franco, Francisco, 1892-1975
        Francoism
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          Symbolism in art
          Spanish painting
          Erice, Víctor, 1940-
          Spanish art
          Spanish politics & government, 1939-1975
          Franco, Francisco, 1892-1975
          Francoism
      keyword:
        civil war
        Foucault
        Franco
        Freud
        Spanish cinema
        Spirit of the Beehive
        St Jerome
        Víctor Erice
        cine español
        cine español
        civil war
        cristofascismo
        Erice
        Espíritu de la colmena
        Espíritu de la colmena
        Foucault
        Franco
        franquismo
        Freud
        San Jerónimo
        San Jerónimo
        Spanish cinema
        Spirit of the Beehive
        St Jerome
        Víctor Erice
      ab:
        This article examines the symbolic value of one of the paintings in Victor Erice's acclaimed El espíritu de la colmena that has caused much perplexity among its commentators: that of the patriarch Saint Jerome we see presiding Fernando's study room and is later on associated with his daughter Isabel through the short and medium shots the camera takes to contrast the ascetic saint and the child's sexually provocative lips. The implications of vampirism and fellatio this feminine 'perverse' and proto-'monster' child forebodes is conceived as a counter- discourse Erice erects against those conservative and repressive institutions that the film suggests through the association of Fernando and the Patriarch. The purpose of this montage is to rethink Francoist morality and imply that the moral, social, and psychological values of post-war Spain were based on the same misogynous and erotophobic prejudices that were handed down from the biblical, mythological, historical, and cultural past that the ascetic personifies. In this sense, the religious legacy Franco deployed during the post-war years is appropriated to suggest the genesis of the false religious, political, and ideological demi-gods Spain erected during that long chronicle of repression that Franco's dictatorship enforced. It forebodes at the same time the return of the repressed that Isabel's attitudes symbolizes.
        Este artículo ofrece una detallada lectura del valor simbólico que entraña uno de los cuadros que ha dejado perplejo a más de un comentarista: el del patriarca San Jerónimo que además de presidir el escritorio de Fernando es posteriormente asociado a su hija Isabel mediante el recorrido que la cámar­a realiza al contrastar la figura del anacoreta con los labios sexualmente provocadores de la niña. Las implicaciones de vampirismo y fellatio que este pequeño y 'perverso' proto-'monstruo' femenino presagia está ideado como un contradiscurso que Erice dirige a los estamentos más conservadores y represivos que la asociación previa entre Fernando y San Jerónimo había establecido. Veo este montaje como un replanteamiento de la moral franquista cuyo objetivo principal es sugerir que los presupuestos sociales, psicológicos y morales de la España de posguerra estaban basados en los mismos prejuicios misóginos y erotófobos que nos legó un largo pasado bíblico, mitológico, histórico y cultural como fue el asociado con el asceta. En este sentido, el legado religioso que el cristofascismo usó ampliamente durante los años de posguerra es reapropiado en este contexto fílmico para sugerir la absurda génesis de los ídolos y falsos dioses de la religión, la política y la ideología que erigió España durante esa larga crónica de la represión que supuso la dictadura de Franco, presagiando de paso el retorno de lo reprimido que la actitud de Isabel simboliza.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: Spanish
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