This ground-breaking study provides a readable introduction to the varied and complex treatments of sexuality since Freud, and reads, in this context, a representative selection of major texts from different areas of Hispanic studies - Renaissance, modern peninsular, and Spanish American.

`Sustained by his habitual panache and brilliance [the six chapters] constitute a series of `strong' readings guaranteed to convince young Hispanists of the need to engage seriously with an important body of post-structuralist texts'Malcolm K. Reed, Journal of Hispanic Philology 'The Body Hispanic is an example of the most astute criticism ... It is refreshing to read a book about bodies that doesn't try to answer what women want, but rather addresses Cixous's contention that "men still have everything to say about their sexuality"' SIGLO XX/20TH CENTURY (1991-92) 'Smith does a very good job of conveying the theoretical material lucidly. The generally excellent calibre of the scholarship is, in turn, what makes one want to struggle with the various theories of gender and sexuality which Smith himself at times describes as 'dense and intricate'. The great diversity of The Body Hispanic assures something of interest to experts in almost all fields of Hispanic studies, and each essay rewards the reader with observations that are fresh and perceptive.' C.S. Halka, Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Volume LXIX: Number 3: July 1992 'without doubt the most radical, ground-breaking work on Hispanic literature published in the last decade (at least), and has Qhanged irrevocably the horizon of expectations of that discipline as a result ... The insights that The Body Hispanic provokes ... are, indeed, radical and far-reaching.' Stephen M. Hart, University of Kentucky, Romance Quarterly, Spring 1993, Vol. 40, No.2' 'erudite book ... it has brought in an important aspect of getting down to fundamentals and regarded texts with something much more engaging than antiquarianism' Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, Tome LV, 1993