Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Love, Politics and the Making of the Modern European Subject: Spanish Romanticism and the Arab World

2004; Routledge; Volume: 5; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Espanhol

10.1179/146827304787074895

1745-820X

Jo Labanyi,

Spanish Literature and Culture Studies

AbstractAbstractThis paper examines the representation of Arab Spain by Spanish Romantic dramatists and poets, in the light of the incipient liberal nation-formation project that started to be elaborated from the late eighteenth century onwards. The texts discussed are: Martínez de la Rosa's Aben Humeya o la rebelión de los moriscos (1830), Hartzenbusch's Los amantes de Teruel (1837), and the Duque de Rivas's El moro expósito (1829–33). My hypothesis is that these works should be seen as experiments, trying out alternative models of the nation at a time when no one model had emerged as hegemonic. I consequently propose that these writers variously turn to Arab Spain, not because of a backward-looking interest in the national past, but in order to elaborate a concept of the modern European subject. My main argument is that such subject matter allows the exploration of a 'border subjectivity' based on a melancholic sense of loss for a past in which mobile and plural identities were possible, prior to the enforced cultural homogenization effected via the elimination of the country's Islamic inheritance after 1492. In exploring this 'border subjectivity', I draw on the insights of Luisa Passerini (1999) into the role of post-Enlightenment discourses on courtly and Romantic love in constructing modern notions of European identity. I also draw on Roger Bartra's theorization of melancholy in Renaissance Spain (2000, 2001) to argue that the melancholic emphasis of these Romantic works of the late 1820s and 1830s should be seen as progressive, by contrast with the nostalgic vision of Spain's Arab past that developed with the drift towards more conservative forms of liberalism in the 1840s. My argument is supported by discussion of the development of Arabic studies in Spain from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century.This paper examines the representation of Arab Spain by Spanish Romantic dramatists and poets, in the light of the incipient liberal nation-formation project that started to be elaborated from the late eighteenth century onwards. The texts discussed are: Martínez de la Rosa's Aben Humeya o la rebelión de los moriscos (1830), Hartzenbusch's Los amantes de Teruel (1837), and the Duque de Rivas's El moro expósito (1829–33). My hypothesis is that these works should be seen as experiments, trying out alternative models of the nation at a time when no one model had emerged as hegemonic. I consequently propose that these writers variously turn to Arab Spain, not because of a backward-looking interest in the national past, but in order to elaborate a concept of the modern European subject. My main argument is that such subject matter allows the exploration of a 'border subjectivity' based on a melancholic sense of loss for a past in which mobile and plural identities were possible, prior to the enforced cultural homogenization effected via the elimination of the country's Islamic inheritance after 1492. In exploring this 'border subjectivity', I draw on the insights of Luisa Passerini (1999) into the role of post-Enlightenment discourses on courtly and Romantic love in constructing modern notions of European identity. I also draw on Roger Bartra's theorization of melancholy in Renaissance Spain (2000, 2001) to argue that the melancholic emphasis of these Romantic works of the late 1820s and 1830s should be seen as progressive, by contrast with the nostalgic vision of Spain's Arab past that developed with the drift towards more conservative forms of liberalism in the 1840s. My argument is supported by discussion of the development of Arabic studies in Spain from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century.Este artículo examina la representación de la España musulmana por parte de dramaturgos y poetas románticos españoles a la luz del incipiente proyecto liberal de construcción nacional que empezó a elaborarse a partir de finales del s. XVIII. Los textos examinados son Aben Humeya o la rebelión de los moriscos (1830) de Martínez de la Rosa, Los amantes de Teruel (1837) de Hartzenbusch, y El moro expósito (1829–33) del Duque de Rivas. Mi hipótesis es que estas obras deben verse como experimentos que ponen a prueba distintos modelos de nación en una época en la que no se había impuesto ningún modelo particular. Pienso por tanto que cada uno de estos escritores retorna a la España musulmana, no por un interés retrógrado en el pasado de la nación, sino para elaborar un concepto del sujeto europeo moderno. Mi argumento principal es que este tema da pie a la elaboración de una 'subjetividad fronteriza' fundada en un melancólico sentido de pérdida de un pasado, anterior a la homogeneización cultura impuesta por la eliminación, a partir de 1492, de la herencia islámica del país, en el que podían darse unas identidades cambiantes y plurales. Al examinar esta 'subjetividad fronteriza', aprovecho las perspicaces exploraciones de Luisa Passerini (1999) sobre el papel de los discursos posteriores a la Ilustración en relación al amor cortés y romántico, en la construcción de las nociones modernas de la identidad europea. También utilizo las teorías de Roger Bartra (2000, 2001) sobre la melancolía en la España renacentista, para argumentar que el marcado carácter melancólico de estas obras románticas de finales de los años 20 y de los años 30 debe considerarse progresista, a diferencia de la visión nostálgica del pasado árabe del país que se desarrolló con modelos de liberalismo más conservadores en los años 40. Apoyaré mi argumento con un repaso al desarrollo de los estudios árabes en España desde finales del s. XVIII hasta mediados del XIX.