Spanish

Laughing in the dark—UMBC’s Erin Hogan writes about Spain’s cinema after Franco

Dec 16, 2025 • By Catalina Sofia Dansberger Duque

Asking Erin Hogan, professor of Spanish, to choose her favorite film is like asking her whether she prefers to study Iberian or Latin American films—both of which she researches and fell in love with as an undergrad. The real answer is that Hogan's favorite film is whatever film she is studying at the time. For her new book, Patriarchy's Remains: An Autopsy of Iberian Cinematic Dark Humour (2024), she capped the list at 14 films between 1958 and 2018, whose characters must deal with the death of the male head of household. Hogan uses the visions of 14 diverse directors to study cinematic dark humour through a feminist, biopolitical, and socio-economic inequality lens.

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