Spanish Scholarship Research Articles

Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship (16th Century to the Present) by James T. Monroe (review)

Islam and the Arabs in Spanish Scholarship (16th Century to the Present) by James T. Monroe (review)

Feeling Bad about Emotional History

This article presents a critical review of The Feeling of History, a recent work by the American anthropologist Charles Hirschkind. In this book, the author treats Andalucismo, a political movement that arose in modern Andalusia early in the twentieth century and was chiefly characterized by an extremely positive view of the Islamic Iberian past (al-Andalus)—a tendency that is certainly unusual in Spain and goes against the prevalent Spanish nationalism. In his book, Hirschkind not only develops an uncritical view of Andalucismo and its intrinsically emotional reading of the past but also legitimizes a rather farfetched conflation of modern Andalusia and al-Andalus. Moreover, he offers an extremely shallow and unnuanced reading of current Spanish scholarship on the Middle Ages, branding it wholesale as an heir to Francoism. He also lends legitimacy to those who call into question the origin of al-Andalus in the Islamic conquest of 711 CE—representatives of an unscholarly approach that has been largely dismissed by academic outlets since the 1970s. Burdened by heavy ideological prejudices and hampered by the author’s limited knowledge of the most recent academic historiographic debates in the field of Iberian medieval studies, the book represents a failed attempt to present the Anglophone readership with a consistent introduction to Andalusian nationalism together with a critical appraisal of the Andalusian nationalist interpretation of the medieval Iberian past.

Observing Islam in Spain: Contemporary Politics and Social Dynamics Edited by Ana I. Planet Contreras

The book’s title explicitly builds on Clifford Geertz’s Islam Observed (1968). Geertz’s book, originally a Terry lecture at Yale, broke new ground at the time for an audience, primarily of historians of religion, in arguing for understanding religious belief and practice as necessarily anchored in specific places and times. Observing Islam in Spain likewise anchors recent studies of Islam and Muslims in the context of the politics and social dynamics of Spain since the late 1970s. It is not a translation of a book that has already appeared in Spanish; it sets out for an intended English-speaking audience what they need to know about Muslims and Islam in contemporary Spain and provides a helpful aperçu of current related Spanish scholarship. Initially, writes Planet, scholars in Spain looked to how French and other European scholars and observers dealt with Islam in northern Europe. The bold subtitle of Gilles Kepel’s path-breaking Les Banlieues de l’Islam: Naissance d’une religion en France (Paris: Seuil, 1987)—‘the birth of a religion in France’—traced as a major development the movement from Islam in France to a French Islam. The Spanish experience does not replicate that of France or of any other European nation because the influx of Muslim immigrants began only in the 1980s, a much more compressed period of time compared to immigration in other European countries.

Las biografías y la historia de la etnología

El artículo pretende resaltar la importancia de la perspectiva en la historia de la antropología española. De modo introductorio, se trata de la utilización de la biografía en la historia, la sociología y la etnología. A continuación, se analiza la presencia del enfoque biográfico en la historia de las ciencias y la metodología de trabajo en la realización de biografías de científicos. Se exponen los géneros biográficos más frecuentes en la historiografía antropológica en general y, finalmente, se remarca la pertinencia de los estudios biográficos para el caso español.

El sitio de los dólmenes de Antequera en la obra de Georg y Vera Leisner: una revisión

The Antequera dolmens site (Malaga, Spain), included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since July 2016, has a research history of almost 200 years that goes back to the work of Rafael Mitjana y Ardison in 1840s. After the discovery of the dolmen of Viera and the tholos of El Romeral, in 1903 and 1904 respectively, the research of the great megalithic site received a renewed impulse, both nationally and internationally. Published in 1943, the first volume of the great corpus of Iberian megalithic monuments by Georg and Vera Leisner ( Die Megalithgraber der Iberischen Halbinsel, Erster Teil: Der Suden ) was to become the most detailed and detailed study of the Antequera site during the second half of the 20th century, despite the fact that because it was published in German limited its penetration among Spanish scholarship. In this article we review the importance of the work of the Leisners to understand the characteristics of the Antequera megaliths in light of the results of the research that has been undertaken in the last 15 years. Many of the issues raised by the German couple continue to be fully pertinent within the context of today’s research on these monuments. In addition, to facilitate future access to their work, this paper is accompanied by full translations into English and Spanish of the Leisners’s work on the Antequera megaliths.

From Arrigunaga to Yoknapatawpha: Ramiro Pinilla and William Faulkner

From Arrigunaga to Yoknapatawpha: Ramiro Pinilla and William Faulkner

Codification as nationalisation or denationalisation of law: the Spanish case in comparative perspective

Some scholars have presented codification as a means to both nationalise and denationalise European legal traditions. This seems to be a paradox. On the one hand, the fact that laws needed to be approved by national parliaments and the ius commune – which was somehow regarded as a foreign law – ceased to be in force, gives evidence of how much codification contributed to the nationalisation of law. On the other hand, the fact that national parliaments enacted codes whose content had been highly influenced by foreign codes reveals that codification also contributed to the denationalisation of law. Different perspectives and arguments may lead to completely opposite outcomes. This debate has been particularly present in the Spanish scholarship. In the end, it seems that the view of codification as a means of denationalisation of law has prevailed, giving either a biased and partisan view of codification, or simplifying its richness. The consequences of such an approach have been notable in describing the codification of all legal branches, particularly in the civil law domain. After the Introduction (I), the paper will explore the Spanish historiography on this matter in a European context (II.1), paying particular attention to Belgium (II.2) and Romania (II.3). I will finish with some concluding considerations (III).

Usuarios en vulnerabilidad social: ¿por qué y para qué generar capital cultural desde la biblioteca?

International and Spanish scholarship on the social role of libraries for people at a social disadvantage are summarized. Current initiatives in public libraries in Spain are presented along with an analysis of some of the library services that have been developed, including an example from Zagreb City Library .

Heroic Forms: Cervantes and the Literature of War by Stephen Rupp

Reviewed by: Heroic Forms: Cervantes and the Literature of War by Stephen Rupp Eduardo Olid Guerrero Rupp, Stephen. Heroic Forms: Cervantes and the Literature of War. Toronto: Toronto UP, 2014. Pp. 251. ISBN 978-1-4426-4912-5 Stephen Rupp informs us that Heroic Forms: Cervantes and the Literature of War centers on Cervantes’s “presentation of warfare and soldiers’ lives in a range of literary genres, both the canonical kinds explicated in Renaissance literary theory and such non-official forms as romance and picaresque fiction” (xi). In general, Rupp’s readings of Cervantes’s works demonstrate a keen eye for generic motifs, classical, Renaissance, and even contemporary intertextualities. Even though there is no rationale for the specific selection of texts and scenes, each of them is discussed at length; most often with special attention given to their relationship with the literary genres with which they have been traditionally associated. Most scholars now accept and assume Cervantes’s manipulation of a multiplicity of literary genres. Rupp challenges and also confirms this perception in relation to war and heroism, and expands his analysis to other literary influences, theories, and interpretations. He manages an interesting theoretical framework, quoting classical thinkers and contemporary theorists, and incorporating them without forcing the interpretation. However, for a book published in 2014, there is a lack of updated sources available (2009–12) on the topic. Perhaps due to the excessive focus on the position of Cervantes’s works within contemporary theory of literary genres, recent bibliography and Spanish scholarship on the topic of early modern war is not well represented (e.g., Estudios sobre cultura, guerra y política en la corona de Castilla: Siglos XIV–XVII by Fernando Castillo Cáceres, or La violencia en el mundo hispánico en el Siglo de Oro by Juan Manuel Escudero y Victoriano Roncero). Furthermore, in this monograph Rupp’s previous work comparing English and Spanish theatre, and his study on Calderón de la Barca and the anti-Machiavellian tradition, would have been useful to complete [End Page 352] his criticism. Machiavelli’s influence seems almost unavoidable not only with Il Principe, but even more with Dell’arte della guerra (1521), for it was a well-known treaty at the time (with an earlier Spanish version by Diego Salazar titled Tratado de re militari in 1536). The first chapter, titled “Warriors: Epic and Tragedy” dedicated to La Numancia, is his best. Rupp stresses that his main focus is to study how this play “combines the patterns of epic and tragedy to examine the challenges of heroic conduct in siege warfare and the instability of the rewards of fame and glory that classical epic offers to its exemplary warriors” (27). His conclusion on how this play looks for an epic catharsis in its Spanish audience by contrasting the practicality of military strategy is very convincing. Still, it would have been interesting to establish parallelism with two well-known samples: Lope de Vega’s El asalto de Mastrique (1579), and Calderón de la Barca’s El sitio de Breda (1640). Chapter 2, “Defenders: Pastoral and Satire,” examines three episodes in Don Quixote. The first one is the trip that the knight and his squire make to El Toboso looking for Dulcinea (DQ II). For Rupp, it is a good sample of Don Quixote’s concern with his legacy and his idea of reaching fame through military deeds. In the second selection that explores the attack on the sheep flocks transformed into two armies by Don Quixote, Rupp sees it as an intrusion of epic violence into pastoral peace (DQ I). Here is Rupp’s only mention of the comedian type of the miles gloriosus that arguably deserved its own subchapter in Heroic Forms. Rupp’s study of Don Quixote’s description of the two armies, with references to Ariosto’s Orlando furioso is very rewarding and insightful. The chapter ends exploring the adventure of the braying regidores and their mocking neighbors (DQ II). Once more, Rupp shows a fine eye for critical analysis when he centers his argument on the concept of casus belli, referring to Francisco de Vitoria’s On the Law of War (1539), to conclude...

The Long-Term Impact of Foreign Multinational Enterprises in Spain: New Insights into an Old Topic

The role of foreign capital and technology in the economic and social progress of late-developing countries remains a controversial issue in both academic and policy circles. In this essay, we examine the case of Spain in the light of the academic literature from the 1960s to the present. First, we identify and contextualize the intellectual concerns and controversies of two important generations of economists and historians and their approaches to the specific issue of multinational enterprises (MNEs). We then discuss what we consider to be the seven major contributions of recent Spanish scholarship in terms of: 1/ new quantitative evidence on FDI inward flows and firm demography analyses of foreign MNEs; 2/ new approaches to the transfer of technology by MNEs; 3/ collective and individual case studies of foreign MNEs, with a focus on their impact on local capabilities; 4/ identification of patterns of investment by MNE home countries; 5/ identification and study of the local actors of inward FDI; 6/ new perspectives gained from the history of international relations; and 7) new evidence on processes leading from inward FDI to outward FDI. We argue that the time is ripe for comprehensive re-assessments of the long-term impact of foreign MNEs and the role of Spain in the global economy.

Visión y revisión historiográfica de la obra “Santa Úrsula y las once mil vírgenes”, del pintor Pablo de Céspedes

Although it is true that, in the last years, new investigations concerning the painter Paul of Cespedes have been undertaken, certain doubts continue to persist in reference to some o the works in unknown whereabouts. Among them, we must highlight the canvas of “Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins” from the Convent of Saint Clare of Cordoba, a composition of which we have found some documentary information that we aim to analyse and contrast with the information offered by Spanish scholarship.

Anglo-Saxon Others in the Spanish imagination

This paper aims to contribute to contemporary research on Spanish images of Englishness and thus on cross-cultural otherness. More precisely, it seeks to identify and describe the composite image of Anglo-Saxon Others as portrayed in ten nineteenth century Spanish history books and to critically discuss the results. Despite Anglo-Saxon England being a marginal issue for nineteenth century Spanish scholarship, it has been proved that existing narratives constitute seminal representations of Anglo-Saxon identity and serve a neatly defined heterogeneous array of political and collective aims 1 . The present analysis suggests that the portrayal of Anglo-Saxon Others contributes to reinforce the ideological bases on which the Anglo

Vitoria, Humanism, and the School of Salamanca in Early Sixteenth-Century Spain: A Heuristic Overview

MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN in Spain that, for reasons pointing to what is ostensibly the development of divergent intellectual traditions separating Iberian and Northern European cultures, has gone wholly unnoticed. This is obviously the case when one refers to that vast array of theoretical speculation characteristic of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish political thought. It is true that much of the intellectual activity characteristic of that era was of theological import; but from this domain the pursuits of the Spanish theologians were translated into a significant number of notable treatises on law, ethics, and politics, many of which cannot be found on the shelves of American or British libraries. (1) While contemporary Spanish scholarship has amassed an enormous number of studies addressing this rich intellectual heritage, it is equally the case that few of these have made their way into the scholarly circles of Northern Europe or the United States, the subject matter of which has proven to be of comparatively marginal concern and influence within the Anglo-Saxon intellectual milieu. Thus, Machiavelli's The Prince (1513) and Bodin's The Six Bookes of a Commonweale (1576), or Kant's Project for a Perpetual Peace (1796) and Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1821) are far more familiar to the English-speaking world than Francisco de Vitoria's Relectiones Theologicae (1557), (2) Domingo de Soto's De Iustitia et Iure (1554), or Francisco Suarez's De Legibus (1612).The range and scope of their accomplishments and concerns were far reaching as theology, considered the mother of sciences by the theologians, stretched its gaze onto the entire plane of social and political Their keynote achievement, as Pagden has rightly noted in his introduction to a recent English-language edition of Vitoria's PoliticalWritings, lay in the fields of jurisprudence and moral philosophy; and it had been Francisco deVitoria to whom sixteenth-century Spain could attribute the initial authorship of that venture. (3) Their intellectual output came about as a response to two fundamental changes in politics and society. The first was the inception and development of the Renaissance state under the shadow of the fracturing unity of Latin Christendom. That political transformation of Christianity, the outward expression of the religious challenge fostered by Lutheran and Christian humanist ideas, had paved the road leading to the wars of religion and culminating in an international order governed by the new doctrine of sovereignty, cujus regio ejus religio, in the Westphalian settlement of 1648. That new, developing structure of politico-religious freedom forged a second, parallel change: the introduction of the new morality of the Machiavellian state. Reason of state soon became the new doctrine of the inter-state order and found extra-European expression in the aims and methods of the Spanish empire in its quest for wealth abroad and its bid for hegemony in Europe. Such a state of affairs served to portray, in the minds of a number of Spanish thinkers, an environment fraught with moral conundrums and theological crises. They had condemned the Lutheran and Christian humanist notions on religion and the role of the Church, but they had also rebuked the heretical and relentless voice of the Italian ragione di stato. Here, the Spanish Thomists saw a point of convergence in Lutheranism and Machiavellism both of [which] were equally concerned, for their own very different reasons, to reject the law of nature as an appropriate moral basis for political life. (4) The sense of crisis imbuing the theory and practice of politics called for a of the theoretical bases of the social order. Central to that reconstruction was the revival of Thomism in the sixteenth century. Skinner has aptly described Francisco de Vitoria as a central figure in that revival that began with the Dominicans during the first half of the sixteenth century and later taken up by the Jesuit order (e. …

La investigación española en turismo con impacto internacional (1997-2011). Una perspectiva desde la economía y la dirección de la empresa

The relevance of tourism for the economy and development in Spain has motivated academic research on the tourist sector. Our study analyzes the international impact of this scholarship and provides researchers connected to the economy and business management with an examination of the main topics researched in this discipline. To do so, we perform a bibliometric study of Spanish scholarship from 1997 to 2011 in the 26 most important international journals on tourism and hospitality. We find that tourism scholars have made a greater than average contribution to economics and business, as well as to the total of scholarly disciplines. Economics, marketing, and business administration are the areas with the greatest weight, and marketing and business administration provide promising lines of research that can contribute to increasing the number of studies of tourism.

Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderless Theory in Spain

The essay offers a brief review of the impact of Gloria Anzaldua’s thought—in particular, of Borderlands/La Frontera—on Spanish scholarship. While the influence of this work is widespread in the scholarship produced in English literature departments in Spain, it also has an important hold in translation studies, geography, and Spanish language and literature studies. Most significantly, Anzaldua’s borderless feminist thought is incorporated in translation in a volume on third-world feminist thinkers edited by a Spanish grassroots feminist collective in order to point toward the ways in which “white” Spanish feminist discourse and practices need to change in an increasingly intercultural, interracial country.

Rethinking Ethnology in the Spanish Context

This paper' discusses Spanish ethnology and its current place in Spanish scholarship. The purpose is to examine possible future directions for the field. After first examining the history of ethnology in Spain, we then turn to examining the role of ethnologists in European societies today, as well as the concept of emergency ethnology. This last refers to the need for developing tools and theories to enable ethnologists to activate rapid-response mechanisms in crisis or emergency situations, and in that sense or context, serve as a meaningful social force.

The Medieval World of Isidore of Seville: Truth from Words , and: The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (review)

Reviewed by: The Medieval World of Isidore of Seville: Truth from Words, and: TheEtymologies of Isidore of Seville Toby Burrows Henderson, John , The Medieval World of Isidore of Seville: Truth from Words, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006; hardback; pp. 244; 8 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. US$99.00; ISBN 9780521867401. Isidore of Seville , The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, trans. Stephen A. Barney et al., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007; hardback; pp. xii, 475 ; R.R.P. US$150.00; ISBN 9780521837491. Isidore of Seville, seventh-century bishop, scholar and saint, was immensely influential throughout medieval Europe. Almost 750 years after his death, he [End Page 227]was described by John Gower as 'the perfect cleric'; Dante had earlier placed his 'burning spirit' within the circle of the Sun in Paradise. Isidore's reputation rested mostly on his monumental encyclopaedic compendium, the Etymologies, which survives in more than 1,000 medieval manuscripts and at least eleven printed editions before 1500. And yet Isidore has been largely forgotten for centuries outside the narrow circle of medieval scholarship – at least until his surprising revival in the last ten years as one of the leading candidates for the position of patron saint of the Internet. The Etymologiesare a vast treasure-trove of Classical learning and information on almost every conceivable subject, loosely organized into twenty thematic chapters. Each entry presents the putative etymology of the Latin term, followed by descriptive and explanatory material drawn from Classical authors. The text is almost entirely a careful patchwork of excerpts and paraphrases of various earlier sources, with Isidore drawing on an extensive range of Latin encyclopaedic and lexicographic works. The first modern edition of the Etymologieswas published by W. M. Lindsay in 1911. A new edition, published by Les Belles Lettres in Paris, has been in progress since 1981, with six volumes (up to Book XIII) now having appeared. There are two complete twentieth-century translations into Spanish, as well as parallel translations accompanying the new edition. In this context, the appearance of the first complete English translation of the entire work is very welcome indeed. Barney and his collaborators have used Lindsay's edition as their base, but have cross-checked their work against the Spanish translations and the new edition (though vol. 6, published in 2004, seems to have appeared after their translation was completed). Emendations to Lindsay's text are given in footnotes rather than incorporated into the text. The translation is 'fairly literal' (p. 28), and is designed to provide clarity rather than elegance. In numerous places, the sense requires that the Latin word be given in brackets after the English word, since so much of Isidore's discussion focuses on the similarities and resonances between the form and sound of Latin words, e.g. decrepit ( decrepitus), twilight ( crepusculum) and chattering ( crepare) (p. 217). The translation is accurate, accessible and readable, though explanatory notes are kept to a minimum. There is also an index of important terms and proper names, as well as an analytical table of contents, accompanied by an index of Greek words and an index of citations from Classical authors and the Bible. The translators also provide a lengthy introduction, covering the sources and influence of the Etymologiesalong with Isidore's life and works. This serves as a useful [End Page 228]survey of the current state of knowledge about Isidore and his work, although other reviewers have noted some gaps in the coverage of the extensive Spanish scholarship on Isidore and an apparent cut-off date of 2003. Hot on the heels of the first complete English translation comes the first complete English commentary on the Etymologies– or rather a complete reading of, and through, Isidore's work. John Henderson brings his classicist's expertise to bear on Isidore's 'compelling attempt to systematize the conceptual archive of Roman memory' (p. x). Henderson's basic point is that the Etymologiesare more than just a storehouse of learning; they form a 'cumulative cosmography', a narrative which teaches us how book culture can be used to model how to think and how to impose conceptual order on the world, and which reveals the...

Fragmentos de orientalismo español del S. XVII

This paper looks at Arabic Studies in 17th-century Spain. According to the Traditional interpretation, this century saw an «eclipse» in Spanish oriental Scholarship. On the contrary, I will try to show that there was a continuous and Permanent interest in Arabic Studies in Spain, not least because of the numerous Questions raised by the forgery of the Lead Books of Sacromonte of the late 16th Century. To demonstrate this continuity, I study several translations of Arabic texts Into Spanish, some hitherto unknown or considered lost. I also discuss the cases of Various prominent Spanish scholars and historians of the time, who, like the marquis of Mondejar, devoted themselves to Arabic Studies as an essential Instrument for constructing the history of Spain. This paper looks at Arabic Studies In 17th-century Spain. According to the traditional interpretation, this century Saw an «eclipse» in Spanish oriental scholarship. On the contrary, I will try to Show that there was a continuous and permanent interest in Arabic Studies in Spain, not least because of the numerous questions raised by the forgery of the Lead Books of Sacromonte of the late 16th century. To demonstrate this continuity, I Study several translations of Arabic texts into Spanish, some hitherto unknown or Considered lost. I also discuss the cases of various prominent Spanish scholars and Historians of the time, who, like the marquis of Mondejar, devoted themselves to Arabic Studies as an essential instrument for constructing the history of Spain.

How to Write the History of the New World: Histories, Epistemologies, and Identities in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World

How to Write the History of the New World: Histories, Epistemologies, and Identities in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World

The Reception of Virginia Woolf in Europe

Series Editor's Preface, Elinor Shaffer Acknowledgements List of Contributors Preface: Virginia Woolf's Crossings, Mary Ann Caws Timeline: European Reception of Virginia Woolf, Paul Barnaby Abbreviations Introduction, Nicola Luckhurst French 1. Virginia Woolf Among Writers and Critics: The French Intellectual Scene, Pierre-Eric Villeneuve 2. The French Reception of Virginia Woolf: An 'Etat Present' of 'Etudes Woolfiennes', Carole Rodier 3. Translating Virginia Woolf into French, Francoise Pellan 4. A Virginia Woolf, with a French Twist, Mary Ann Caws German 5. The German Reception and Criticism of Virginia Woolf: A Survey of Phases and Trends in the Twentieth Century, Ansgar and Vera Nunning 6. Installing Modernism: The Reception of Virginia Woolf in the German Democratic Republic, Wolfgang Wicht Polish 7. From Silence to a Polyphony of Voices: Virginia Woolf's Reception in Poland, Urszula Terentowicz-Fotyga Swedish 8. 'Literature is no one's private ground': The Critical and Political Reception of Virginia Woolf in Sweden, Catherine Sandbach-Dahlstrom Danish 9. Waves of Influence: The Danish Reception of Virginia Woolf, Ida Klitgard Greek 10. 'The Country of the Moon' and the Woman of 'Interior Monologue': Virginia Woolf in Greece, Katerina K. Kitsi-Mitakou Italian 11. The Reception of Virginia Woolf in Italy, Sergio Perosa Spanish 12. 'A gaping mouth, but no words': Virginia Woolf Enters the Land of Butterflies, Laura Lojo Rodriguez 13. The Emerging Voice: A Review of Spanish Scholarship on Virginia Woolf, Alberto Lazaro 14. Virginia Woolf and the Search for Symbolic Mothers in Modern Spanish Fiction: The Case of Tres Mujeres, Maria Jose Gamez Fuentes Galician 15. 'A fastness of their own': The Galician Reception of Virginia Woolf, Manuela Palacios Catalan 16. Modernism, Nationalism and Feminism: Representations of Virginia Woolf in Catalonia, Jacqueline A. Hurtley Portuguese. 17. The Portuguese Reception of Virginia Woolf, Graca Abranches History of Publishing 18. The European Dimensions of the Hogarth Press, Laura Marcus Bibliography Index.