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Text And Intertext: James Whale's Frankenstein In Víctor Erice's El Espíritu De La Colmena, Linda M. Willem

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Víctor Erice's use of clips from James Whale's Frankenstein as the basis for actions by his young protagonist, Ana, in El espíritu de la colmena has led critics to speculate on the symbolic meaning of the monster within that Spanish film. For Virginia Higginbotham the monster represents Franco's Spain, a country that has lost both its memory and its moral sense (116-20). For Marvin D'Lugo the monster stands for the mysterious, the unknown, the different, and the deviant, all of which Ana identifies with as she defines herself as an oppositional spirit (2862). Carmen Arocena sees Ana's rebellion as an …