Modern Spanish culture is bold and experimental, expressing adisregard for generic boundaries and formal conventions. In these essays, leading Hispanists explore the dialogue and interrelation between cultural discourses and artistic practices in a variety of nineteenth- and twentieth-century texts from the perspectives of literary criticism, cultural analysis, media studies, politics and the history of art. The contributors address fundamental questions about the relationship between artistic media and cultural fields and provide insights into the way identities - social, political or cultural - are bound up with the textual.