Agustín Espinosa, spectator of the insular space: the influence of cinema in Lancelot, 28°-7° (1929)

Abstract

The avant-garde description of the island of Lanzarote that Agustín Espinosa developed in Lancelot, 28°-7° (1929) proves that the writer shared the same interest in cinema that other young writers had expressed in their works during the 20s. However, the interartistic relation between cinema and literature in Lancelot has not been examined carefully yet. For this reason, this paper tries to study the different ways the cinema has influenced Lancelot, which includes not only references to film stars from the Amercian silent cinema, but also using certain film techniques. Thus, Espinosa offers new images of the island, now merged with universal artistic movements. To analyze this particular use of Espinosa’s cinema background in Lancelot, this paper will study the interest in cinema that the writer showed along his life, the way he uses different film techniques, the poetic imagery related to cinema, and the references to film stars included in the text.