Barcelona, City of Margins by Olga Sendra Ferrer

Abstract

Reviewed by: Barcelona, City of Margins by Olga Sendra Ferrer Sandra Ortiz-València Sendra Ferrer, Olga. Barcelona, City of Margins. U of Toronto P, 2022. Pp. 267. ISBN 978-1-4875-0848-7. Barcelona, City of Margins delves into the constitution of spaces of dissent during the 1950s and 1960s of Franco’s dictatorship, following a well-established trend in Peninsular Studies, but what makes the book stand out is its original multidisciplinary approach. It brings together Marxist [End Page 152] theory, urbanism, literary studies, and photography to re-interpret this particular historical period and shed light on how social, political, economic, and cultural factors contribute to the creation of dissidence and resistance. Taking Barcelona as a geographical point of reference, the book illustrates “how the material city facilitates the creation and development of a system of critique that then lays out the foundation for the democratic city to come” (3). To put it simply, by interpreting a variety of cultural productions, Barcelona, City of Margins proves that material and geographic marginalization in urban spaces is directly connected to the constitution of democratic values. Barcelona, City of Margins lays out its argument in four chapters that build upon each other, balancing theoretical approaches—particularly, Henri Lefebvre’s ideas of abstract space—and close readings of different cultural expressions—most prominently, literature and photography. The first chapter sets up the historical context and employs the term “urban turn” to describe the change of narrative in Francoist ideological discourse: which left behind its mythology about rural Spain and embraced the metropoles and modernization as the banners of national identity to facilitate the entrance into hegemonic capitalism. This introductory chapter analyzes the material and geographical consequences that this “urban turn” cast on the metropoles, particularly Barcelona: the emergence of neighborhoods at the margins that forged dissent and decades later were essential in the constitution of democracy. Within this context, the second chapter of the book proposes Francisco Candel’s writings as the first expression of the dissidence generated in and by the suburbia population. As the analysis shows, Candel is relevant because he constructs the identity of these neighborhoods, challenges homogenization through the use of irony and calls for integration predicating upon equality and democratic values. Even though this historical phenomenon has been widely analyzed in Peninsular studies, these chapters articulate an original interpretation that lays bare the relationship between the development of the capitalist city and the foundations of democracy. Still, the argument of the book does not end here; rather, it is also reinforced by bringing into the discussion other means of expression. That is why, the third chapter of Barcelona, City of Margins takes photography as the object of study; after evaluating some photographers from the Nova Avanguarda (in particular, Xavier Miserachs or Francesc Català Roca), this section pinpoints Joan Colom’s photographic production as an illustration of dissidence, because “[he] emphasizes the dialectic nature of coexistence in the street, precisely that which the housing complexes were intended to eradicate, as he renews the contact between bodies” (143). In short, Colom’s photographs display the contradictory nature of public spaces and establish a dialogue between the official discourse about the city and the material reality of these new neighborhoods by showing a disrupted image of the streets of Barcelona. Then, chapter four delves deeper into photographic materials, but includes the component of gender by exploring the work of three Catalan female photographers: Milagros Cartula, Carme Garcia, and Colita (Isabel Steva i Hernández). All of them express dissent in their photography, particularly challenging the male gaze undoubtedly present in Colom’s work and the Nova Avanguarda, but the latter is emphasized in the analysis because of her depictions of the new neighborhoods created by Francoist urbanism. Colita’s photographs present “a new urban geography that breaks with monumentalism and the conception of space as the product of a discursivity and practice removed from daily life . . . [and] a change of perspective in the female gaze” (183–84). The analysis shows that her photographs employ visual irony and give agency to female characters to objectify the city as much as the language of the city objectifies women. Therefore, the chapters present...