This essay examines intellectual authority and popular dissent in Spain following the Great Recession. It advances two contrasting theoretical accounts of the voice—the “acousmatic” and “constituent” voice—as ways for understanding how intellectuals have eluded responsibility for their role in Spain’s economic crisis and why collective attempts at holding them accountable have been limited. Through a comparative analysis, the essay traces the meanings and permutations of the acousmatic and constituent voice through four very different examples from historiography (Santos Juliá), film (Pedro Almodóvar), new media (Appgree), and literature (The Winterlings, by Cristina Sánchez-Andrade). The essay, in sum, offers new theoretical tools for identifying the disavowal of authority and showing the limits of certain digital forms of collective decision-making in Spain today.

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Great Recession, cultural studies, intellectual history, new media, Spain
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2020
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