Duncan Wheeler
Biographic Data
| ID | 3745694 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Duncan Wheeler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Duncan |
| FAMILY NAME | Wheeler |
| SIGNATURE | WHEELER D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leeds |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7739-6603 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
From Asbury Park to the Streets of Minneapolis
This article offers a critical reading of Bruce Springsteen biopic Springsteen: Deliver me from Nowhere (Scott Cooper, 2025) with two interrelated aims: first, to provide the non-Springsteen fan with sufficient context to approach the film on its own terms; and, secondly, to show how and why foregrounding the complex and often contradictory relationships between art, commerce and depression, while courageous for a mainstream film, sidelines unres…
Almodóvar, Madrid’s Cinematic Laureate
In 2024, Pedro Almodóvar released The Room Next Door, his debut feature-length film in English. This article looks back at his life and career through the lens of a major exhibition staged in his adopted home of Madrid. The article, much like the exhibition, charts a potted history of one of the major oeuvres of contemporary European cinema through the lens of the Spanish capital
Modern Language Review (MLR)
Centenary Paper
‘El Callejón’, arguably the finest restaurant in La Mancha’s biggest city, Albacete, is a shrine both to bullfighting and Don Quixote . Points of connection between the two iconic images of Spain are limited, although both employ cruelty as an aesthetic device and have long been championed in La Mancha as matters of regional as well as national pride. To coincide with the 300-year centenary of the publication of the first part of Don Quixote , th…
Francis Bacon and Bullfighting
This article explains how the physical and philosophical world of the corrida might nuance our understanding of life and work of the Anglo-Irish artist Francis Bacon, and vice-versa. To this end, the analysis is split into three sections. The first offers a biographical sketch of Bacon’s interest in taurine subject-matter. This background context paves the way for an ethical and aesthetic comparison between the working practices of the painter an…
Feeling Sick
Review of: Feeling Sick: The Early Years of Aids in Spain , Dean Allbritton (2023) Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 224 pp., ISBN 978-1-80207-804-6, h/bk, £95
Las Hermanas De Manolete by Alicia Montesquiu, and
Reviewed by: Las Hermanas De Manolete by Alicia Montesquiu, and: Entre Sevilla y Triana Duncan Wheeler LAS HERMANAS DE MANOLETE. By Alicia Montesquiu. Directed by Gabriel Olivares. Teatro Fernán Gómez, Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid. January 23, 2022. ENTRE SEVILLA Y TRIANA. Music by Pablo Sorozábal. Libretto by Luis Fernández de Se-villa and Luis Tejedor. Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid. January 28, 2022. Historical memory is a hot topic in S…
Bullfighting in Southern France
Drawing on ethnographic research among bullfighting professionals and audiences in Spain and France, this report assesses the current health of bullfighting in Arles as a means to grapple with broader questions surrounding the cultural and political standing of this increasingly controversial activity on both sides of the Pyrenees
Our Man in Madrid
Four bullfighters stood as MPs in the April 2019 Spanish general elections: Miguel Abellán and Salvador Vega for the PP; and Serafín Martín and Pablo Ciprés for Vox. None was elected, although Abellán and Martín came close. The former's allegiance was rewarded with his political appointment by the PP's Isabel Díaz Ayuso as Director‐General of Madrid's Centre for Taurine Activities. Bullfighters throwing their hats into the political arena is inex…
Barcelona, a musical olympus? Live concerts, club cultures, television and city branding
The 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games announced Spain’s democratic credentials and facilitated a vast urban regeneration project in the Catalan capital. There is extensive bibliography on the role played by culture in the forging of the so-called Barcelona model, but little attention has been paid thus far to popular music. Barcelona may lack Ibiza’s super-clubs, but, in the space of a generation, the city has gone from being a relative backwater to b…
Teatro hispánico y su puesta en escena
The Musical in Spain
The early twenty-first century Spanish stage has been characterised by an unprecedented boom in musicals. This is both the cause and consequence of the commercial success of Hoy no me puede levantar, a musical about the Movida based around the songs of Mecano. In the first half of this article, I examine to what extent Madrid’s Gran Vía can make a claim to being the Spanish Broadway and discuss the resilience of the Movida as a privileged site fo…
Spanish Theatre Studies
Theatre Studies was consolidated as a discipline during the 1980s as a result of dissatisfaction in academia at the inadequacy of an exclusively literary-based approach to the text, premised upon i
The Generation Game
The general elections held on December 20, 2015 were the most unpredictable and bitterly fought in Spain since 1979. This was the cause and the consequence of the rise of new political parties, most noticeably Podemos and Ciudadanos, who have translated into political currency the discontent and energy of the "15-M"movement, a shorthand for anti-austerity movement(s) that references the occupation of major squares throughout Spain by the so-calle…
The (post-)feminist condition
Spain did not experience first- or second-wave feminism simultaneously with its European neighbours due primarily, albeit not exclusively, to the Franco dictatorship (1939–1975). Following the transition to democracy, the twenty-first century media-scape often appears to be firmly committed to the discourse of post-feminism, an adscription that might be construed as a paradigmatic example of cultural and social normalisation. There is, neverthele…
All her friends call her Alaska
First coming to prominence as the bassist of one of the earliest Spanish punk bands, Kaka de Luxe, Alaska became the public face of the Movida through a starring role in Pedro Almodóvar’s debut feature, Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón (1980), and a string of major hits as lead singer of Alaska y los Pegamoides and, subsequently, Alaska y Dinarama. The latter dissolved in 1989 when she and Nacho Canut, a constant presence and songwriter …
You’ve Got to Fight for Your Right to Party? Spanish Punk Rockers and Democratic Values
La Movida is generally considered to be a cultural phenomenon that emerged in Madrid and elsewhere in Spain in the late 1970s as a reaction against the draconian nature of the Franco dictatorship (1939–75). This article will nuance and challenge some common misconceptions about the scene(s) in relation to Spain’s Transition to democracy by advancing three interrelated arguments. First, the Franco regime was not as antagonistic to popular music as…
Letter from Madrid
Wanna be in my b(r)and? Live At Leeds festival report
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Godard's List
Godard has consistently voiced his disapproval of Spielberg's Schindler's List. Critics have noted this antipathy yet there is currently no detailed analysis of Godard Godard, Jean-Luc and Youssef, Ishaghpour. 2005. Cinema: The Archeology of Film and the Memory of a Century. Trans. JOHN HOWE, New York: Oberg. [Google Scholar]'s specific objections. This article attempts to remedy this omission. In the first half, the author focuses on the motivat…
You’ve Got to Fight for Your Right to Party? Spanish Punk Rockers and Democratic Values
La Movida is generally considered to be a cultural phenomenon that emerged in Madrid and elsewhere in Spain in the late 1970s as a reaction against the draconian nature of the Franco dictatorship (1939–75). This article will nuance and challenge some common misconceptions about the scene(s) in relation to Spain’s Transition to democracy by advancing three interrelated arguments. First, the Franco regime was not as antagonistic to popular music as…
The (post-)feminist condition
Spain did not experience first- or second-wave feminism simultaneously with its European neighbours due primarily, albeit not exclusively, to the Franco dictatorship (1939–1975). Following the transition to democracy, the twenty-first century media-scape often appears to be firmly committed to the discourse of post-feminism, an adscription that might be construed as a paradigmatic example of cultural and social normalisation. There is, neverthele…
Barcelona, a musical olympus? Live concerts, club cultures, television and city branding
The 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games announced Spain’s democratic credentials and facilitated a vast urban regeneration project in the Catalan capital. There is extensive bibliography on the role played by culture in the forging of the so-called Barcelona model, but little attention has been paid thus far to popular music. Barcelona may lack Ibiza’s super-clubs, but, in the space of a generation, the city has gone from being a relative backwater to b…
Godard's List
Godard has consistently voiced his disapproval of Spielberg's Schindler's List. Critics have noted this antipathy yet there is currently no detailed analysis of Godard Godard, Jean-Luc and Youssef, Ishaghpour. 2005. Cinema: The Archeology of Film and the Memory of a Century. Trans. JOHN HOWE, New York: Oberg. [Google Scholar]'s specific objections. This article attempts to remedy this omission. In the first half, the author focuses on the motivat…
The (post-)feminist condition
Spain did not experience first- or second-wave feminism simultaneously with its European neighbours due primarily, albeit not exclusively, to the Franco dictatorship (1939–1975). Following the transition to democracy, the twenty-first century media-scape often appears to be firmly committed to the discourse of post-feminism, an adscription that might be construed as a paradigmatic example of cultural and social normalisation. There is, neverthele…
All her friends call her Alaska
First coming to prominence as the bassist of one of the earliest Spanish punk bands, Kaka de Luxe, Alaska became the public face of the Movida through a starring role in Pedro Almodóvar’s debut feature, Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón (1980), and a string of major hits as lead singer of Alaska y los Pegamoides and, subsequently, Alaska y Dinarama. The latter dissolved in 1989 when she and Nacho Canut, a constant presence and songwriter …
You’ve Got to Fight for Your Right to Party? Spanish Punk Rockers and Democratic Values
La Movida is generally considered to be a cultural phenomenon that emerged in Madrid and elsewhere in Spain in the late 1970s as a reaction against the draconian nature of the Franco dictatorship (1939–75). This article will nuance and challenge some common misconceptions about the scene(s) in relation to Spain’s Transition to democracy by advancing three interrelated arguments. First, the Franco regime was not as antagonistic to popular music as…
Letter from Madrid
Wanna be in my b(r)and? Live At Leeds festival report
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Generation Game
The general elections held on December 20, 2015 were the most unpredictable and bitterly fought in Spain since 1979. This was the cause and the consequence of the rise of new political parties, most noticeably Podemos and Ciudadanos, who have translated into political currency the discontent and energy of the "15-M"movement, a shorthand for anti-austerity movement(s) that references the occupation of major squares throughout Spain by the so-calle…
The Musical in Spain
The early twenty-first century Spanish stage has been characterised by an unprecedented boom in musicals. This is both the cause and consequence of the commercial success of Hoy no me puede levantar, a musical about the Movida based around the songs of Mecano. In the first half of this article, I examine to what extent Madrid’s Gran Vía can make a claim to being the Spanish Broadway and discuss the resilience of the Movida as a privileged site fo…
Spanish Theatre Studies
Theatre Studies was consolidated as a discipline during the 1980s as a result of dissatisfaction in academia at the inadequacy of an exclusively literary-based approach to the text, premised upon i
Teatro hispánico y su puesta en escena
Barcelona, a musical olympus? Live concerts, club cultures, television and city branding
The 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games announced Spain’s democratic credentials and facilitated a vast urban regeneration project in the Catalan capital. There is extensive bibliography on the role played by culture in the forging of the so-called Barcelona model, but little attention has been paid thus far to popular music. Barcelona may lack Ibiza’s super-clubs, but, in the space of a generation, the city has gone from being a relative backwater to b…
Our Man in Madrid
Four bullfighters stood as MPs in the April 2019 Spanish general elections: Miguel Abellán and Salvador Vega for the PP; and Serafín Martín and Pablo Ciprés for Vox. None was elected, although Abellán and Martín came close. The former's allegiance was rewarded with his political appointment by the PP's Isabel Díaz Ayuso as Director‐General of Madrid's Centre for Taurine Activities. Bullfighters throwing their hats into the political arena is inex…
Las Hermanas De Manolete by Alicia Montesquiu, and
Reviewed by: Las Hermanas De Manolete by Alicia Montesquiu, and: Entre Sevilla y Triana Duncan Wheeler LAS HERMANAS DE MANOLETE. By Alicia Montesquiu. Directed by Gabriel Olivares. Teatro Fernán Gómez, Centro Cultural de la Villa, Madrid. January 23, 2022. ENTRE SEVILLA Y TRIANA. Music by Pablo Sorozábal. Libretto by Luis Fernández de Se-villa and Luis Tejedor. Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid. January 28, 2022. Historical memory is a hot topic in S…
Bullfighting in Southern France
Drawing on ethnographic research among bullfighting professionals and audiences in Spain and France, this report assesses the current health of bullfighting in Arles as a means to grapple with broader questions surrounding the cultural and political standing of this increasingly controversial activity on both sides of the Pyrenees
Centenary Paper
‘El Callejón’, arguably the finest restaurant in La Mancha’s biggest city, Albacete, is a shrine both to bullfighting and Don Quixote . Points of connection between the two iconic images of Spain are limited, although both employ cruelty as an aesthetic device and have long been championed in La Mancha as matters of regional as well as national pride. To coincide with the 300-year centenary of the publication of the first part of Don Quixote , th…
Francis Bacon and Bullfighting
This article explains how the physical and philosophical world of the corrida might nuance our understanding of life and work of the Anglo-Irish artist Francis Bacon, and vice-versa. To this end, the analysis is split into three sections. The first offers a biographical sketch of Bacon’s interest in taurine subject-matter. This background context paves the way for an ethical and aesthetic comparison between the working practices of the painter an…
Feeling Sick
Review of: Feeling Sick: The Early Years of Aids in Spain , Dean Allbritton (2023) Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 224 pp., ISBN 978-1-80207-804-6, h/bk, £95
Almodóvar, Madrid’s Cinematic Laureate
In 2024, Pedro Almodóvar released The Room Next Door, his debut feature-length film in English. This article looks back at his life and career through the lens of a major exhibition staged in his adopted home of Madrid. The article, much like the exhibition, charts a potted history of one of the major oeuvres of contemporary European cinema through the lens of the Spanish capital
Modern Language Review (MLR)
From Asbury Park to the Streets of Minneapolis
This article offers a critical reading of Bruce Springsteen biopic Springsteen: Deliver me from Nowhere (Scott Cooper, 2025) with two interrelated aims: first, to provide the non-Springsteen fan with sufficient context to approach the film on its own terms; and, secondly, to show how and why foregrounding the complex and often contradictory relationships between art, commerce and depression, while courageous for a mainstream film, sidelines unres…
Art (15 works) · History (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · History (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Media studies (8 works) · Humanities (7 works)