Spanish History Research Articles

Hispanofilia e hispanofobia en el imaginario estadounidense: la España del Cid, de la virilidad épica a la decadencia

"During a period of around 100 years, the American audience was exposed to the history of Mio Cid from several points of view. The world of The Alhambra:A Series of Tales and Sketches of the Moors and Spaniards by Washington Irving provided in 1832 an idealized version of this period of Spanish history. This was followed by the more nuanced visions of the History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella by William Prescott in 1837 and George Ticknor’s History of Spanish Literature in 1849. A new vision of the Cidian imaginary was that of sculptor Anna Hyatt in several of her famous statues devoted to El Cid in the 1920s in Balboa Park, San Diego, or in the Hispanic Society of New York. Of course, she was influenced in her choice of topic by her husband Archie Huntington, the founder in 1904 of the Hispanic Society. The corollary to this representation of Cidian history came in 1961 with the epic film The Cid, greatly acclaimed by critics and audiences.Keywords: Mio Çid Ruy Díaz;Washington Irving; George Ticknor; Prescott; Anna Hyatt"

Polemik und Geschichtsschreibung bei Thomas Abbt

Abstract The article examines the historiographical concepts of Thomas Abbt (1738–1766) in their polemical references, especially in the Berliner Literaturbriefe. By means of polemics, Abbt outlines his idea of ‘pragmatic history’ in contrast to contemporary historical attempts, namely J.C. Harenberg’s History of the Jesuits, C.F. Pauli’s Heroic Tales, a historical novel by J.G.H. v. Justi and P.E. Bertram’s Spanish History. Therefore, history must unite three claims: a pragmatic one with regard to its political utility, an epistemic one concerning an unconditional claim to objectivity and non-fictionality, and an aesthetic-stylistic one, according to which only a style schooled in classical rhetoric and ancient historiography can guarantee the utility and truth of history. Hence, Abbt’s polemic against misguided historiography is essentially articulated as a critique of style.

Принцип суверенитета в конституционной истории Испании

The article is devoted to the significance of the principle of sovereignty in the constitutional history of Spain, evolution of its content, peculiarities of the legislative design of its types, identified in jurisprudence by content elements and subjects. The author of the article notes the urgency of the problem of choosing a holder of constituent sovereignty (associated with the right to adopt a constitution) in the 19th century; a nation, a king, at the same time a nation (represented by the cortes) and a king were recognized as its holders; the choice determined the subject of established sovereignty (identified with the supreme, legislative power). The unequal attitude towards sovereignty at different stages of Spanish history in the 20th century is shown. The author of the article concludes that the actualization of practical tasks of state building in the republic with regional autonomy, strictly centralized Spanish state, kingdom with autonomic communities focused the attention of the founders on the state as the holder of sovereignty, on developing the organization of its implementation through a system of government bodies.

“Minorities”, the nation and Europe in the history textbooks of Germany, Spain and Turkey

A feature of the concept of “minorities” is the invisibility and stigmatization of communities, more so within the idea of the nation. The European Union project stimulated new vistas, and offers challenges to reconcile peoples under a new political, social and economic concept. However, in the midst of crisis and war in Europe, mistrust and hostility are increasing, incited by right-wing populism and nationalism and these aims of the last century are slowly making their way into history textbooks. This article analyses the representation and construction of these complex concepts in eight German, Turkish and Spanish secondary school history textbooks. In times of strengthening nationalism, it is also discussed here whether the representations convey essentialist ideas and imperialistic structures hidden between the lines in school textbooks, or whether they reflect the concept of “minorities” as a component of a pluralistic and hybrid European society. The research is divided into two areas: 1) A quantitative analysis of textbooks: A comparative research will be carried out on the representation of 'minorities' in English, German, Turkish and Spanish history textbooks. The textbook research is temporally limited to the period from the sixteenth until the twenty-first centuries.

Introduction to special issue: languages in modern day Puerto Rico

Abstract This introduction to our special issue surveys some of the current work undertaken by scholars on the island of Puerto Rico and abroad that document the language forms, uses, and ideologies of language in the U.S. territory. We provide the “total linguistic fact” (Silverstein 1985) of what it means to speak English and Spanish in Puerto Rico, Census projections of language use, self-reported data and actual documented work on the form and social uses of languages. We provide the sociohistorical context of the history of both Spanish and English on the Island, language policies across time, and how these have played out and been contested in real time. Setting the scene for our special issue, we ask our readers to think critically on the status of contact languages in globalized times, ideological shifts of language practices, and the intimate ties between language and identity.

Mujeres bajo la dictadura franquista: manuales escolares y representaciones del alumnado de secundaria

This research focuses on the relevance of incorporating the gender perspective in the teaching of recent Spanish history with the aim of building an inclusive democratic memory, which also incorporates the historical experiences of women, by examining two basic aspects: on the one hand, school textbooks; and, on the other hand, students' perceptions. To this end, attention is paid to the historical period relating to the Franco dictatorship, particularly to the experiences of women during that time, with the aim of approaching the ideas that students have about this period, in an attempt to understand whether these are related to the discourse that emanates from textbooks about this period. To this end, we mainly follow the qualitative paradigm, analysing both some of the Geography and History textbooks for 4th ESO most commonly used in schools, and the conceptions of 96 Valencian students, aged between 15 and 18, by means of a detailed questionnaire. The first results suggest a limited and stereotyped representation of women during the dictatorship in these textbooks, revealing worrying results in the students' ideas about the dictatorship in general and women's experiences in particular. Despite this, small advances can be glimpsed in some textbooks, as well as in the responses of some female students, which offer us an optimistic perspective to continue moving towards a more complete and complex teaching of history.

Franquismo y memoria democrática: el continuo reto de la formación ciudadana en Secundaria

Promoting political education in young people, along with instilling democratic values, is essential in our students' classroom training. However, fifteen years after the implementation of Spain's law of historical memory and amidst years of debate on the necessity of building a democratic memory around our recent history, teachers continue to face challenges when teaching recent Spanish history, encompassing the Civil War, Franco's dictatorship, and the Transition. How do students interpret present-day events in relation to the historical curricular contents they have studied during Secondary and Baccalaureate education? This paper presents an approach to understanding the perceptions of students in the 1st and 2nd years of the Baccalaureate regarding current issues related to Francoism and democratic memory. The students had been exposed to the conceptual contents of this historical period during their 4th year of ESO and 2nd year of the Baccalaureate when the study was conducted. Our research relies on the analysis of three specific questions in a questionnaire designed to elucidate their perception of a pressing social problem, exemplified by the exhumation of Franco from The Valley of the Fallen. This approach seeks to shed light on key aspects of the teaching and learning of history, particularly in the context of secondary education.

Sobre la enseñanza del pasado democrático en España. Alumnado, polarización y redes sociales

The aim of this text is to reflect on the teaching of democratic memory in Spain, focusing on history students, and encourage a debate on how to work on this important subject in the classroom to build and strengthen democracy. To achieve this, three different aspects are dealt with. Firstly, the analysis of the new legislation on democratic memory shows the opposing views on the republican period and the Civil War that have been observed in the parliamentary procedure of this law. Secondly, it connects the process of political polarisation observed in Spain, as well as the relevance of these contradictory visions of the past in it, with the students’ previous conceptions in order to understand their reception in the teaching of history. This polarised context, as it is proposed, should be considered as an influential element in young people’s attitudes towards history. Thirdly, based on the importance of social networks today, these reflections are complemented by the study on the interpretation of the Paracuellos shootings in Madrid in the autumn of 1936, which appeared on the social network Twitter/X. The aim is to show what kind of discourses on the Spanish history young people may be receiving.

Fragile Ties: Spanish Themes in Soviet Porcelain

This article is devoted to the study of the so-called “Spanish theme” in Soviet porcelain. The author analyses the reflection of the stereotypical perception of Spain in small porcelain sculptures of the Soviet period produced by a variety of manufactures. Among the components of the Spanish theme, the author highlights the images of flamenco (Spanish dance), bullfighting, the most recognizable heroes of Cervantes (Don Quixote and Sancho Panza), and the fiery Carmen who was created by Prosper Mérimée and has become the stereotypical image of a nineteenth- century Spanish woman in the popular imagination thanks to the musical and dance pieces of the same name. These traditional components of the perception of Spain in the twentieth century were supplemented by the interpretation of a turning point in Spanish history – the Civil War of 1936–1939 – in propaganda porcelain. This article proposes another perspective on the Spanish theme in Soviet porcelain and considers the formation of the images of Spaniards, men and women. Such images are reflected in all the plots presented in this paper. Most of the sculptural works by different generations of Soviet porcelain masters are devoted to dance. The author concludes that dance scenes, including the ones that refer to Carmen, are fundamental for the Spanish theme in Soviet porcelain.

El Atlas Histórico del Español: un nuevo recurso para el estudio de la dialectología histórica

Abstract The Historical Atlas of Spanish (AHE) is a free-access tool on the Internet designed to advance the knowledge of dialectal variation in the history of Spanish. The Atlas consists of a database of structural features (with preferential attention to morphosyntax) extracted from dialectal textual corpora. For each of the structures studied, the results are presented in the form of a brief state of the art illustrated with maps and graphs. The Atlas aims to contribute to the study of linguistic variation and change from a dialect perspective and extract significant generalizations about the diffusion of linguistic changes in the physical space. In this article we present the main methodological issues that have been considered in the process of creating the Historical Atlas of Spanish: contents and structure, data sources, techniques for data extraction and analysis, and the computer application for creating the maps and visualizing the results.

En el centenario de la dictadura de Miguel Primo de Rivera. Un aniversario casi olvidado

In this article we aim to underline the importance of the primorriverist era for Spanish history, despite the certain academic neglect of the period. Primo de Rivera's dictatorial experiment was highly relevant, as it left an anti-liberal ideological imprint that served as a unifying element for the strategy and actions of the Spanish right-wing during the Second Republic and the subsequent Franco dictatorship. This socio-political project was structured around a new nationalist, monarchical, Catholic, authoritarian and anti-liberal state. The Spanish nationalist model of the Dictatorship was unitarist and centralist, and confronted the other peripheral nationalisms accused of separatism. And along with it, a corporative project at the social level based on the joint committees, made up of employers and workers, under the tutelage of the state, which assumed the presidency of these committees. In this article we aim to underline the importance of the primorriverist era for Spanish history, despite the certain academic neglect of the period. Primo de Rivera's dictatorial experiment was highly relevant, as it left an anti-liberal ideological imprint that served as a unifying element for the strategy and actions of the Spanish right-wing during the Second Republic and the subsequent Franco dictatorship. This socio-political project was structured around a new nationalist, monarchical, Catholic, authoritarian and anti-liberal state. The Spanish nationalist model of the Dictatorship was unitarist and centralist, and confronted the other peripheral nationalisms accused of separatism. And along with it, a corporative project at the social level based on the joint committees, made up of employers and workers, under the tutelage of the state, which assumed the presidency of these committees. In this article we aim to underline the importance of the primorriverist era for Spanish history, despite the certain academic neglect of the period. Primo de Rivera's dictatorial experiment was highly relevant, as it left an anti-liberal ideological imprint that served as a unifying element for the strategy and actions of the Spanish right-wing during the Second Republic and the subsequent Franco dictatorship. This socio-political project was structured around a new nationalist, monarchical, Catholic, authoritarian and anti-liberal state. The Spanish nationalist model of the Dictatorship was unitarist and centralist, and confronted the other peripheral nationalisms accused of separatism. And along with it, a corporative project at the social level based on the joint committees, made up of employers and workers, under the tutelage of the state, which assumed the presidency of these committees.

The Rival Freedoms of Don Quixote

I view Don Quixote as a representative of Eric Nelson's 'Greek' view of freedom and Sancho Panza as an embodiment of Quentin Skinner's 'neo-Roman' view. Each has their worldview challenged by their adventures such that their view- points become reversed by the climax of the novel. I point to the Greek tradition's entanglement in the Spanish conquest of the Americas as a reason Cervantes would wish to divest his main character of the Greek view. Accordingly, I suggest that the concept of penance plays a crucial role in how the author positions the rival traditions in relation to Spanish history.

Specificity of Plastic Imagery of Competitive Dance Pasodoble

The purpose of the article is to reveal the specificity of the plastic imagery of the Pasodoble competition dance. Research methodology. The historical method was applied, which contributed to the study of the origin and development of Pasodoble; the typological method thanks to which the peculiarities of its formation as a competitive ballroom dance were revealed; the method of artistic-stylistic and art-historical analysis, with the aim of identifying characteristic stylistic features, features of performance technique and specifics of Pasodoble's plastic imagery; method of theoretical analysis and generalisation. Scientific novelty. The plastic imagery of the Pasodoble competitive ballroom dance is studied; the technique of its implementation is characterised; the history of the origin of the dance is considered; The peculiarities of the theatricalisation of Pasodoble's choreography as one of the ten dances of the international competition programme have been revealed. Conclusions. The dramatic Latin American dance, which originated in Spain, has become one of the most popular ballroom dances in the world over the last hundred years. The specific combination of dance elements and figures in the composition by French dance teachers in the 1920s create a unique Pasodoble choreography. In the 1940s, it was codified as one of the dances in the Latin American International Style programme. Pasodoble is characterised by strong, bold movements, and the use of dramatic poses in the process of telling the story of the bullfight. Due to its theatricality and unique music, the Pasodoble is commonly performed at ballroom dance competitions and used in stage ballroom choreography. Pasadoble dance and music are steeped in ritual tradition, with a high sense of drama and power. The specific attire of the dancers, the feel and atmosphere of the dance refer to Flamenco – these dances have a strong connection and symbolic origin in Spanish history and culture. The aesthetic expressiveness of Pasodoble is created by plasticity, a musical-plastic image, which embodies the combination of the inner potential of the dancing couple and the mastery of their bodily expressiveness. Specific theatricalisation by means of choreographic expressiveness is manifested in the Pasodoble competition ballroom dance in many ways. The creation of choreography oriented and theatrical interpretation is connected with solving a number of artistic tasks. The complex of expressive means used by dancers helps to clearly outline the meaningful line of the dance. The imagery of the Pasodoble competition ballroom dance choreography is characterised by its own poetic reflection of the bullfight, taking into account the current codification of steps and figures of the Latin American programme of the international style. The plastic image represents socio-cultural aspects, current social symbols, and meanings in the dance.
 Keywords: Pasodoble, competitive dance, plastic, artistic imagery, theatricalisation.

La prueba de Historia de España para acceder a la universidad: análisis y comparación entre comunidades autónomas

The university entry procedure is a critical aspect for students gaining entry to higher education. This work has a dual purpose: to analyse the structure of the Spanish History test for university entry, according to the autonomous region in which it is designed, and to study the relationship between the differences observed in the structure and average performance obtained by students. A comparative analysis has been carried out with a methodological approach of rational analysis of documentary evidence with sixty-eight exams from 2019, adapting the approach proposed by García-Garrido (1991). Likewise, a secondary analysis has been conducted of the data published annually by the Integrated University Information System. The results show substantial differences in the assessment of national historical knowledge: in the structure and content, in the cognitive level and in the marks. Disparities are specifically observed in the language of the test, in the optional nature, in the number of questions and in the content blocks that are assessed: in Catalonia, Valencia and the Basque Country, neither Ancient History nor the Middle Ages, nor the Modern Era are assessed. Likewise, the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castile-La Mancha and Castile and León demand a higher cognitive level from their students. These aspects determine the heterogeneity in the constructs used, in such a way that neither the same understanding nor the same skills of national historical knowledge are being measured throughout the autonomous regions.

Испанские романы Лиона Фейхтвангера

The article analyzes two novels of L. Feuchtwanger devoted to the Spanish theme – «Goya» and «The Jewess of Toledo». To be based on the classic plots of Spanish history – two tragic «une histoire d`amour» – Feuchtwanger seeks to establish the ideals of Humanism and the En-lightenment. Raising such issues as the artist and power, politics and love, progress and religion, the struggle between Good and Evil (Light and Darkness), the Black Legend and the role of the Jews in medieval Spain, Feuchtwanger is forced to come to the conclusion that human nature and intellect are imperfect. The author of the article shows that a deep historiosophy is hidden behind the artistic content, and Feucht-wanger conducts a constant and intense dialogue with his contemporar-ies.

Treatment of history content and written expression in texts for foreign students in compulsory education in Spain

The aim of this paper is to conclude on the state of the art in terms of research, materials and needs in the teaching of written expression through the contents of Spanish History in Spain. The starting hypothesis is that there are no suitable materials for the academic and social inclusion of foreign students in our educational system. On this basis, a systematic review of the literature on the subject and of the materials offered by the main publishers in Spain has been carried out. As a working tool, a rubric was developed for the analysis of the materials, and an account was given of the treatment of History content and written expression activities in the selected textbooks. The reference documentation for the teaching of languages and History has been reviewed transversally. The results show the scarcity, or almost absence, of materials specifically developed for non-native learners, the lack of research on issues related to L1 didactics for these children, and the need to establish a European reference framework for history similar to those existing for language teaching and learning.

Jan van Muilekom, The Franco Regime and its Historiography. Spanish Historians Confronting Propaganda and Censorship. Brighton, Chicago, Toronto: Sussex Academic Press, 2021, 268 págs.

Jan van Muilekom, The Franco Regime and its Historiography. Spanish Historians Confronting Propaganda and Censorship. Brighton, Chicago, Toronto: Sussex Academic Press, 2021, 268 págs.

Same people, different outcomes: the sociolinguistic profile of three language changes in the history of Spanish. A corpus-based approach

Abstract Within the framework of Historical Sociolinguistics and using a corpus of ego-documents written by Spaniards from different social backgrounds, this study analyses the sociolinguistic profiles of three phenomena of variation and change that took place in two critical periods in the history of Spanish: the Golden Age and the Early Modern Spanish. The study focuses on three standard variants that would end up displacing several vernacular forms whose use was much more widespread in Golden Age Spanish: (a) the use of the complementiser que in doxastic predicates depending on the verb creer [’believe, think’], to the detriment of the variant creer + Ø; (b) the analogical pronoun quienes in relative clauses with an explicit human antecedent (’estos son los niños a quienes me dirigí’ [‘these are the children I spoke to’]), as opposed to the traditional relative quien; (c) the diffusion of the demonstrative pronoun allí [‘there’] at the expense of allá. Despite the success of the standard variants in the eighteenth century, the three cases of variation show different sociolinguistic conditioning, which in turn is closely related to several parameters, such as the speed and robustness of the respective changes, the typology of the variables and the linguistic constraints at work in each case.

From Motion to Causation: The Diachrony of the Spanish Causative Constructions with traer (‘Bring’) and llevar (‘Take’)

This paper describes the historical evolution of the Spanish causative micro-constructions with the motion verbs llevar (‘take’) and traer (‘bring’) (e.g., el miedo llevó al ladrón a cometer un error, ‘the fear caused the thief to make a mistake’). In order to reconstruct the historical development of these micro-constructions between the 13th and 20th centuries, all causative uses of llevar and traer were extracted from the Corpus del Diccionario Histórico. This corpus was annotated for a series of formal and semantic parameters that count as indexes of grammaticalization, and was submitted to a quantitative productivity analysis. The results point to the existence of a subschema formed of verbs of caused accompanied motion, which has semantically specialized in the expression of indirect causation. From a formal point of view, this subschema is characterized by a low level of syntactic incorporation of the causative verb and the infinitive. In addition, it is shown that the productivity of the causative micro-constructions under study is determined by semantic changes experienced by llevar and traer as full lexical verbs during the history of Spanish. The late development of the micro-construction with llevar is explained by the initial tendency of this verb to express motion events not bounded by an endpoint. From the 16th century onwards, the decline in the micro-construction with traer and the rise in the micro-construction with llevar results from the consolidation of the deictic meaning of the verb pair.

Gendering Catholicism in Late Modern Spanish History (1854–1923): Research Lines and Debates for a European Dialogue

The aim of this paper is to bridge the gap between Spanish and European historiography specializing in gender and Christianity studies, in order to enrich general observations and contribute to ongoing debates beyond Spain. To this end, I will map the most salient problems and interpretations that have emerged from Spanish historiography addressing the relationship between gender and Catholicism between 1854 and 1923, in light of Spain's dynamic gender and revitalized religious studies. I will then approach inner controversies connected to broader debates on the feminization of Spanish Catholicism throughout the late nineteenth century, the changes in the gender discourse of Catholicism and its interactions with liberalism and modernity, the re-masculinization of Catholicism (or the Catholicization of masculinity), the gendered Catholic mobilization and the controversy on Catholic feminism. Throughout this article, this line of research will, in turn, contribute new insights into the phenomena and discourses shaping the contemporary history of Spain, such as secularization, modernization and nation-building processes.