How ‘Carmen’ became a flamenco doll. Andalusian women and Spanish folklore in films featuring tourists (1905–1975)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The main aim of this paper is to reveal how the image of Andalusian women was fossilised and re-imagined for tourism during a decisive timeframe (1905–1975), to wit, how Bizet's most well-known heroine became a reified embodiment of Spanish women by turning ‘Carmen’ into a highly domesticated folkloric singer, a symbolic doll. To understand how this process was showcased in cinemas, a sampling of 104 films featuring tourists has been analysed using NVivo software, detecting every mention in their plots of specific categories such as those connected with Andalusian women in folkloric films (Labanyi, J. 2004. Lo andaluz en el cine del franquismo: los estereotipos como estrategia para manejar la contradicción. Sevilla: Centro de Estudios Andaluces. https://www.centrodeestudiosandaluces.es/publicaciones/lo-andaluz-en-el-cine-del-franquismo-los-estereotipos-como-estrategia-para-manejar-la-contradiccion): ‘Spanish Gypsies’ and ‘Flamenco World’. A first approach to the sampling suggests that the interrelationship between these categories intensified in the 1920s and 1930s, the first period in which cinema was deliberately used as political propaganda by Spanish filmmakers, the aim being to promote tradition in the lead-up to the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition in Seville. The increasing relevance of the category of ‘Andalusian Women’ can also be perceived during early Francoism, which is key evidence for the concept of reification of the female Gypsy dancer for tourism purposes and the transformation of ‘Carmen’ into a living, standardised Spanish souvenir during the developmentalist period.