ABSTRACT
This chapter centers on the thorny issues of film genre and cultural specificity. In a discipline so heavily invested in questions of national identity, the concept of a national genre presents as many opportunities for fruitful reflection as it sets out pitfalls of essentialism. With that provision, the chapter examines the conditions under which culturally specific genres may arise and single out the Spanish civil war film as the most obvious “national genre” in Spain. The chapter ends with a close analysis of Guillermo del Toro’s El espinazo del diablo [The Devil’s Backbone] (2001) and El laberinto del fauno [Pan’s Labyrinth] (2006). These two films not only revisit that historical, traumatic event but also re-imagine the Spanish civil war movie as a national film genre, reframe the genre’s foundations, and question its geopolitics.
