Regional Nationalism in Spain

Regional Nationalism in Spain
Author: Jaine Beswick
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2007
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1853599794

This book is about linguistic diversity and language revitalisation in Galicia, one of the autochthonous regions of Spain. By means of historical, linguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives, it examines societal language use and institutional support in order to determine the role of the Galician language and loyalty and prestige factors, in expressions of Galician ethnic identity.

The Reinvention of Spain

The Reinvention of Spain
Author: Sebastian Balfour
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2007-10-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 019152574X

Unravelling the debate about the Spanish nation and its identity in the new democracy, this book looks at the issue as both a historical debate and a contemporary political problem, particularly complex due to the legacy of the Francoist Dictatorship which deeply eroded the legitimacy of Spanish nationalism. During and since the transition Spanish nationalist discourse has evolved to meet the challenge of new concepts of nation and identity. These formulations argue very different configurations of the relationship between nation and state. While the Constitution of 1978 defines Spain as a nation of nationalities, many politicians and intellectuals now claim that Spain is a nation of nations, others that it is a nation of nations and regions, or a post-traditional nation state, or post-national state. For the peripheral nationalists, it is merely a state of nations and regions. What is at issue is not whether Spain exists or not as a nation; rather, it is the traditional ways of seeing Spain from both the centre and the periphery that are being challenged. The Reinvention of Spain examines the ways in which Spanish and regional identities are projected and how influence the external actions of the Spanish state. It also analyses the dynamic of comparative grievance and competition between regions deriving from the peculiar architecture of the state in Spain, and their effect on social and political cohesion. Finally, it examines scenarios of change that might foster solutions but asserts that Spain will continue to reinvent itself.

Contesting Spain? The Dynamics of Nationalist Movements in Catalonia and the Basque Country

Contesting Spain? The Dynamics of Nationalist Movements in Catalonia and the Basque Country
Author: Richard Gillespie
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2015-06-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317409485

Contesting Spain? The Dynamics of Nationalist Movements in Catalonia and the Basque Country offers an exploration of the dynamics behind contemporary shifts in the orientation of nationalist parties and movements with reference to Catalonia and the Basque country in Spain. The chapters were originally papers presented at a workshop held at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) in September 2014 as part of a research project on ‘The Dynamics of Nationalist Evolution in Contemporary Spain’, whose purpose was to gain a better understanding of why regionally-based nationalist movements have experienced shifting relationships with the Spanish state over time, in some periods appearing content with accommodation between central and regional government and at other times pushing to go beyond autonomist demands to seek sovereignty or even attain full independence. The volume is one of the first to focus comparatively on the rise of pro-sovereignty politics in mainstream nationalist parties, whose evolution has also featured more traditional impulses towards territorial accommodation within the wider state. Using the exceptionally rich laboratory provided by Spain, the book explores the dynamics behind shifts in the orientation of nationalist parties and movements once they have established themselves as electorally successful at regional level. Dimensions to the analysis include: the interaction of nationalist parties with central government; pressures from their support bases; competition between parties within the home region; and international influences. This title is innovative in bringing together experts with a range of disciplinary approaches: primarily political scientists but also historians and scholars located at the cusp between social sciences and humanities.

Metaphors of Spain

Metaphors of Spain
Author: Javier Moreno-Luzón
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2017-02-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1785334670

The history of twentieth-century Spanish nationalism is a complex one, placing a set of famously distinctive regional identities against a backdrop of religious conflict, separatist tensions, and the autocratic rule of Francisco Franco. And despite the undeniably political character of that story, cultural history can also provide essential insights into the subject. Metaphors of Spain brings together leading historians to examine Spanish nationalism through its diverse and complementary cultural artifacts, from “formal” representations such as the flag to music, bullfighting, and other more diffuse examples. Together they describe not a Spanish national “essence,” but a nationalism that is constantly evolving and accommodates multiple interpretations.

The Federalization of Spain

The Federalization of Spain
Author: Luis Moreno
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2013-10-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1135275661

Traces the origins of the complex system of devolution and regional home rule that currently shapes and directs the Spanish political process.

The Oxford Handbook of Spanish Politics

The Oxford Handbook of Spanish Politics
Author: Diego Muro
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 765
Release: 2020-02-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0198826931

"Oxford Handbooks offer authoritative and up-to-date surveys of original research in a particular subject area. Specially commissioned essays from leading figures in the discipline give critical examinations of the progress and direction of debates, as well as a foundation for future research. Oxford Handbooks provide scholars and graduate students with compelling new perspectives upon a wide range of subjects in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences"--

Flamenco Nation

Flamenco Nation
Author: Sandie Holguín
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2019-06-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0299321800

How did flamenco—a song and dance form associated with both a despised ethnic minority in Spain and a region frequently derided by Spaniards—become so inexorably tied to the country’s culture? Sandie Holguín focuses on the history of the form and how reactions to the performances transformed from disgust to reverance over the course of two centuries. Holguín brings forth an important interplay between regional nationalists and image makers actively involved in building a tourist industry. Soon they realized flamenco performances could be turned into a folkloric attraction that could stimulate the economy. Tourists and Spaniards alike began to cultivate flamenco as a representation of the country's national identity. This study reveals not only how Spain designed and promoted its own symbol but also how this cultural form took on a life of its own.

Spanish identity in the age of nations

Spanish identity in the age of nations
Author: José Álvarez-Junco
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 600
Release: 2013-07-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1847796834

Spanish identity in the age of nations offers the first comprehensive account in any language of the formation and development of Spanish national identity from ancient times to the present. Much has been written on French, British and German nationalism, but remarkably little has been published on Spanish nationalism. Paradoxically, even in Spain there is much more on Basque, Catalan and other regional nationalisms than on Spanish identity. As a result, this study fills an enormous gap in the literature on Spanish history. This book traces the emergence and evolution of an initial collective identity within the Iberian Peninsula from the Middle Ages to the end of the ancien regime based on the Catholic religion, loyalty to the Crown and Empire. The adaptation of this identity to the modern era, beginning with the Napoleonic Wars and the liberal revolutions, forms the crux of this study. None the less, the book also embraces the highly contested evolution of the national identity in the twentieth century, including both the Civil War and the Franco Dictatorship. Álvarez-Junco ́s pioneering study was awarded both the National Prize for Literature in Spain and the Fastenrath Prize by the Spanish Royal Academy

Creating Spaniards

Creating Spaniards
Author: Sandie Eleanor Holguin
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780299176341

Landscape, Nature, and the Body Politic explores the origins and lasting influences of two contesting but intertwined discourses that persist today when we use the words landscape, country, scenery, nature, national. In the first sense, the land is a physical and bounded body of terrain upon which the nation state is constructed (e.g., the purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain, from sea to shining sea). In the second, the country is constituted through its people and established through time and precedence (e.g., land where our fathers died, land of the Pilgrims pride). Kenneth Robert Olwig s extended exploration of these discourses is a masterful work of scholarship both broad and deep, which opens up new avenues of thinking in the areas of geography, literature, theater, history, political science, law, and environmental studies. Olwig tracks these ideas though Anglo-American history, starting with seventeenth-century conflicts between the Stuart kings and the English Parliament, and the Stuart dream of uniting Scotland with England and Wales into one nation on the island of Britain. He uses a royal production of a Ben Jonson masque, with stage sets by architect Inigo Jones, as a touchstone for exploring how the notion of "landscape" expands from artful stage scenery to a geopolitical ideal. Olwig pursues these contested concepts of the body politic from Europe to America and to global politics, illuminating a host of topics, from national parks and environmental planning to theories of polity and virulent nationalistic movements. "

Music Theater and Popular Nationalism in Spain, 1880-1930

Music Theater and Popular Nationalism in Spain, 1880-1930
Author: Clinton D. Young
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2016-01-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807161055

From its earliest appearance in the mid-1600s, the lyric theater form of zarzuela captivated Spanish audiences with its witty writing and lively musical scores. Clinton D. Young’s Music Theater and Popular Nationalism in Spain, 1880–1930 persuasively links zarzuela’s celebration of Spanish history and culture to the development of concepts of nationalism and national identity at the dawn of the twentieth century. As a weak Spanish government focused its energy on preventing a recurrence of mid-nineteenth-century political upheavals, the project of articulating a national identity occurred at the popular level, particularly in cultural venues such as the theater. Zarzuela suited this aim well, depicting the lives of everyday citizens amid the rapidly changing norms brought about by industrialization and urbanization. It also integrated regional differences into a unified vision of Spanish national identity: a zarzuela performance set in Madrid could incorporate forms of music and folk dancing native to areas of the country as far distant as Andalucía and Catalonia. A true “music of the people” (música popular), zarzuela offered its audiences an image of what a more modern Spain might look like. Zarzuela alone could not create a unified concept of Spanish identity, particularly with competition from new forms of mass culture and the rise of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship in the 1920s. Yet, as this riveting study shows, it made an indelible contribution to popular culture and nationalism. Young’s history brings to life the stories, songs, and evolving contexts of a uniquely Spanish art form.