Abstract
The article analyzes the serial novels by Wenceslao Ayguals de Izco (1801-1873) highlighting their melodramatic dimension. It points out how these novels took part in the definition of the social and political narratives and imaginaries of the mid-nineteenth century Spanish democratic radicalism, and also how they contributed to the building of its “emotional community”. Afterwards the article studies three “national fantasies” that are insistently displayed in these melodramatic novels: the marriage as a metaphor of the national fullness, the martyr dying for the fatherland, and the “angel of salvation” aiding those in need. All these fantasies were based on (and helped to build) sexual difference and, at the same time, allowed the readers to recognize themselves as “national men” or “women”. Finally, the article briefly reflects on the need to pay attention to the individual dimension of the processes of identification with these and other fantasies.
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