Intro
Acknowledgments
Contents
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction: The Tragic Mode and Spanish Cinema
A World in Crisis
The Modern Tragic Subject
Rebellion, Transgression, and Suffering
Fate and Freedom
A Meaningless and Impenetrable World
Circular Structure
Book Layout
Chapter 2: The Fallen Woman: A Tragic Approach
La aldea maldita: Fall, Forgiveness, and Redemption
Inclement Heaven
The Return of the Prodigal Daughter
Poetics of Fall and Redemption: La hija de Juan Simón
Carmela's Defiance
Transgression and Fall

Carmela as the Scapegoat
There Is No Redemption Without Death
Chapter 3: The Condemned Land: Tragedy and the Rural World
Family Business: La laguna negra
Divine Punishment
The Return of the Prodigal Son
Back to the Beginning
The Law of Desire: Condenados
Repressing Desire
The Power of Feelings
The Circle Closed
Chapter 4: Tragedy, Power, and Resistance
Introduction
Desire, Power, and Resistance: La tía Tula
Under Tula's Rule
Tula's Resistance
From Resistance to Domination
Tragedy and the Politics of Mourning: 7 días de enero
The Two Spains

Family Debts
Justice and Reparations
Chapter 5: Tragedy and Social Exclusion
Introduction
"Live Fast, Die Young and Have a Good-Looking Corpse" : Deprisa, deprisa
Political Amnesia
Life is a Party
The Fall
Rethinking Family: The Limits of Freedom in La buena estrella
"One-Eye": Unbearable Homelessness
Never, Nothing, Nobody: Daniel, "Pretty Face"
Time Is Up
Chapter 6: The Recurrence of the Tragic
Poetics of Love, Desire, and Death: La novia
A World in Ruins
A Ghost from the Future
Knives Are Drawn
Of Mothers and Daughters: Julieta

"The Past Is Never Dead
It Is Not Even Past"
Man in Black
Scenes from a Marriage
Mothers and Daughters
Chapter 7: Epilogue
Works Cited
Bibliography
Filmography
Index