"The Culture of Cursilería will be hailed within the budding field of Spanish cultural studies as a pioneering exploration of the relations between feelings and socio-historical transformations." — José A. Valero , European Journal of Cultural Studies
"The Culture of Cursilera must be considered a work of seminal contribution to the field." — Brian J. Dendle, Romance Quarterly
"[A]mbitious and thought-provoking. . . . This is a stimulating study that opens up a wide avenue of further work and speculation." — Alison Sinclair , Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies
"[E]xhaustive. . . . Cursi and cursilería are not the book's subject but a pinhole through which to look at the whole of Spanish life and culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. No small task, and Valis's volume tackles it superbly. A dense and difficult book but immensely rewarding. . . . For sheer intellectual stimulus, this powerful . . . book is the best value-for-effort I can imagine." — Isabel Quigly , TLS
"I found the book a fascinating foray into literary theory and cultural studies, especially admiring Valis' effort to anchor cursilería with timely historical references and her convincing argument on its historical and contemporary importance." — David Ortiz Jr. , Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies Bulletin
"This brilliant contribution-and challenge-to Spanish cultural criticism builds on Noël Valis's extensive previous critical studies. . . . Valis's book offers a treasure trove of obscure and little-known sources. . . . [O]ne of the most important books of Hispanic criticism to appear in the last decade. . . . The scholarly apparatus complementing Valis's text is a testimony to the intellectual rigor of both the author and Duke University Press: Forty-seven pages of notes and thirty-eight pages of bibliography." — Maryellen Bieder, Symposium
"We have been waiting for The Culture of Cursilería for a long time and it was well worth the wait. There is no substitute for vast and meticulous research, breadth and depth of knowledge, a mature vision, and nuanced arguments. Noël Valis has combined all these to give us an account of Spain's transition to modernity that truly captures an inner sense of social shift." — Roberta Johnson , Hispania
“Noël Valis offers brilliant, innovative insights into a cultural phenomenon that illuminates many aspects of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Spain. As perhaps one of the most distinguished cultural critics of Hispanic studies today, Valis takes an interdisciplinary approach to expose the links between text, economics, politics, and historical events.” — Harriet S. Turner, University of Nebraska
“Noël Valis's writing is powerful and insightful. Her arguments are brilliant, subtle, and carefully textured; they cleverly elucidate the duality of cursi. This is an important, imaginative, fully accomplished book that will be essential reading for anyone interested in understanding more fully the cultural and literary realities of Spain a century ago.” — David T. Gies, University of Virginia