Allegorising the body politic: Masculinity and history in Saura's El jardn de las delicias (1970) and Almodvar's Carne trmula (1997)

This article examines the intersections between masculinity and history in Carlos Saura's 1970 film El jardn de las delicias/The Garden of Delights and Pedro Almodvar's 1997 film Carne trmula/Live Flesh. The backdrop of Saura's black tragicomedy of greed is the conflict between Spain's rapid industrial modernisation the milagro econmico that ushered Spain into a new era and the residual dictatorial structures of that time. Carne trmula's complex tale of love, betrayals and deceits is woven into Spain's contemporary national narrative: its transition from dictatorship to democracy. Set in Spain's vital historical periods and equally burdened by the weight of history, Carne trmula and El jardn de las delicias are further linked insofar as the directors of both films focus on the male (disabled) body and reflect upon prevailing Spanish political models through the tropes of manhood and masculinity. Saura's dystopic vision and Almodvar's political utopia are stories enacted by male characters who desire obsessively, suffer desperately, take bitter revenge and embrace violent forms of love. The films of Saura and Almodvar reveal the complexity and multiplicity of social, political and historical constructions of masculinity. Their exploration critiques masculinity and the male body and the ways in which these are produced, inscribed and contested. Both directors examine the historical construction of masculinity within the framework of modern Spanish political culture. The protagonists of El jardn de las delicias and Carne trmula are inseparably wedded to a shared national/collective history that in turn (de)forms them.