La leyenda negra: Representaciones y usos del imperio y la conquista en los S. XX y XXI

“We have all been victims and executioners at some point”. This statement by the Spanish Minister of Culture, Jordi Solé, in 1992, on the occasion of the celebration of the fifth centenary of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, perfectly sums up the vision that has been developed in Spain about the conquest of America in recent years. Spanish historians have analyzed the Conquest and the Black Legend with the aim of refuting or confirming the accusations against the imperial history of Spain. Instead, I will focus on how the conquest is used by different ideological sectors in Spain and what is the purpose of such instrumentalization. To achieve my goal, I do not focus on the analysis of historical events per se, but on how the different cultural works represent the history of the conquest, what elements they emphasize and what they conceal. My thesis project aims to analyze the use of the image of the conquest and the Black Legend in Spain from the Franco era to the present day. Through the rereading of history and the exaltation of the imperial past, some political and intellectual groups have tried to promote a patriotism that serves as a bond of national unity against those movements that they consider a separatist threat. Along the different chapters, I study, through the analysis of different media and cultural productions, the evolution of the thought of the conquest and the Black Legend in relation to political changes and the evolution of Spanish society. In this way, I analyze not only what these people are saying at that moment, but also the motivations behind their speech and their objectives.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Spanish

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Regoyo, Aritz

Contributors dc:contributor

• Irigoyen-García, Javier
• Meléndez, Mariselle
• Calderwood, Eric
• Toliver, Joyce
• Martínez-Quiroga, Pilar

• Spanish Empire
• Media Representations
• Black Legend
• Francoism
• Literature

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Aritz Regoyo

Language dc:language

es, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121424

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F121424