Transatlantic transactions: writing hispanism at the centennial of 1892

"This dissertation analyzes the emergence of Hispanist discourse surrounding the celebrations of the Fourth Centennial of the “Discovery” in Spain in 1892. These celebrations became the first moment after the independence of continental Latin America in which intellectuals from both sides of the Atlantic revisited their common history and articulated a transatlantic Hispanic identity based on shared language, race and “spirit.” Hispanism offered them an alternative to the Anglo-Saxon and French modernities from which they were excluded as peripheral not-yet-modern nations. Both Latin American and Spanish authors implemented the myth of Hispanic anti-materialist spirituality to paradoxically reinforce transatlantic commercial exchange. Latin American authors imagined themselves as more modern than Spain, but Hispanic identity provided a white genealogy and the promise of a common economic front. Spanish intellectuals, on the other hand, sought to regain cultural authority and so capture the profits of the Latin American markets. In spite of convergence over the ""Hispanic"" as a strategic identity with which to claim modernity, intellectuals did not produce a homogeneous discourse, but constructed multiple and conflicting interpretations of the Hispanic bond, deployed by each author in their own nation-building projects. Transnational identity became subordinated to national interests and ultimately would turn into an ideological battleground in the definition of cultural and economic power relations between the former colonies and the ex-metropole. The writings of Hispanism are an ideal point of access for reconsidering issues of postcoloniality, neocolonialism, and internal colonialism from the unique vantage point of transatlantic relations between Spain and Latin America."

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

2010

Author dc:creator

• Arbaiza, Diana

Contributors dc:contributor

• Beckman, Ericka
• Delgado, Luisa-Elena
• Meléndez, Mariselle
• Tolliver, Joyce L.

• Hispanism
• Postcoloniality
• Alternative Modernity
• Transatlantic Studies
• Latin American Literature 19th Century
• Peninsular Literature 19th Century

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2010 Diana Arbaiza

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/16025

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/16025