Desire and dissent

by Christopher Perriam

"Tackling subjects as varied as Madrid nightlife, the necessity of alcohol, Renaissance art, sex, the importance of scholarship, boys on motor scooters, the nature of love, Plato, blue jeans, classicism and rock music, Luis Antonio de Villena (b. 1951) is one of modern Spain's best-known writers. Although far from being realist, his work engages indirectly with historical phenomena in surprising and complex ways. This introduction to a provocative and sophisticated writer situates Villena's creative work in relation to the contemporary Spanish cultural scene, to twentieth-century homosexual culture and to significant gay and dissident figures of the past, including Lorca and Luis Cernuda. The author explains how Villena has developed a radical new aesthetic out of the old raw materials of love, sex, death, power, and the primacy of art and desire."--BOOK JACKET.