Properties of Modernity

Michael Iarocci

Description

Michael Iarocci traces the ways in which Spain went from being central to European history and identity during the early modern period to being marginalized and displaced by England, France, and Germany during the Romantic period. He points out that it has long been an unspoken assumption tainting much of literary criticism that Spain did not have a strong Romantic movement even though Spain itself had come to be viewed by the "new" Europe as the location of all that was romantic.

Through a close study of Cadalso, Saavedra, and Larra, Iarocci argues that Spanish writers were intensely concerned with the same issues taken up by more famous Romantics and that the ways in which they address these issues provides us with a richer notion, not only of Spain, but of all of Europe.

Sujets

• European
• Portuguese
• Spanish
• Literature
• Literary Criticism

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 27 mars 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826592118
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

occi

P roperties M of odernity Romantic Spain, Modern Europe, and the Legacies of Empire

Michael Iarocci

Properties of Modernity

Properties of Modernity

Romantic Spain, Modern Europe, and the Legacies of Empire

Michael Iarocci

Vanderbilt University Press 

©  Vanderbilt University Press All rigts reserved First edition 

  8  

    

Printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in te United States of America

Publication of tis book as been supported by a generous subsidy from te Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States Universities.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Iarocci, Micael P. Properties of modernity : romantic Spain, modern Europe, and te legacies of empire / Micael Iarocci.—st ed.  p. cm.  Includes index.  ISBN -8-- (clot : alk. paper)  ISBN -8-- (pbk. : alk. paper)  . Spanis literature—8t century—History and criticism. . Spanis literature—t century—History and criticism. . Romanticism—Spain. . National caracteristics, Spanis, in literature. . Cadalso, José, –8—Criticism and interpretation. . Rivas, Angel de Saavedra, duque de, – 8. Don Alvaro. . Larra, Mariano José de, 8–8— Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PQ.I  8.’’—dc 

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Struggling against te News

. From te Narratives of Modernity to Spanis Romanticism

. Beginnings witout End: José Cadalso and te Melancoly of Modernity

. Retinking te Modern in Saavedra’sDon Alvaro

. Late Larra, or Deat as Critique

Afterword

Notes

Works Cited

Index

vii

ix

5

1

3

9

9

139

203

213

243

267

Acknowledgments

Friends, students, family, and colleagues ave been te companions to tis project over te last several years, and I am deeply grateful to tem all for te frequent encouragement tey ave given me, often witout knowing it. Conversations wit several of my colleagues in te Depart- ment of Spanis and Portuguese at Berkeley—in particular, Estelle Tarica, José Luis Passos, José Rabasa, and Dru Dougerty—provided me wit an early, muc appreciated sounding board for ideas wen tey were still taking sape. Graduate seminars ave been a stimulating forum of dia- logue and excange, and te energy and entusiasm of undergraduates at Berkeley as been a source of inspiration. A Humanities Researc Fel- lowsip from te University of California afforded me invaluable time to finis te manuscript, and I feel privileged to work at an institution tat foments intellectual inquiry in so many ways. At te same time, I would like to express my gratitude to my colleagues in eigteent- and nineteent-century Spanis studies across te country; te field is unique for te way it draws so many first-rate scolars wo, as it appens, are also generous interlocutors. To Jesús in Montreal and to Carlotte in Port- land, ere it is. I would also like to tank Betsy Pillips, wo supported tis work from te time se first read it, and Vanderbilt University Press for its continuing commitment to te mission of academic publising. I feel fortunate tat my work as found suc a wonderful venue. Finally, I would like to tank Debarati Sanyal, wose energy, brilliance, and com- panionsip made te closing monts of tis project—and te days tat ave followed—an unexpected joy.

[ vii ]

Introduction Struggling against te News

A twenty-four-our news cannel on a television screen, somewere in America;increasingly,anywereinteworld.Returnfromcommercial. Dramatic teme-music fades out. A talking ead beams wit info-yout—a combination of makeup, imaging software, and cosmetic surgery. Below te ead, te movement of multiple data streams. Above it, to te left, a grapic. he ead reads a teleprompter wit te studied exaggeration and empatic cadences of newspeak. he story begins, “IN EUROPE TODAY. . . .” he grapic is a map tat represents te silouettes of Britain, France and Germany. . . . Britain, France, and Germany . . . Europe . . . a curious synecdoce.

Not long ago, it may ave seemed odd to begin a book dedicated to te literary production of romantic Spain by evoking te Anglo-international twenty-four-our news. In te increasingly corporate Information Age tat some would simply sum up as te present, owever, and as calls for literary and cultural studies to globalize eerily begin to eco neoliberal demands for te unindered movement of capital across te planet, te twenty-four-our international news is a paradoxically apt veicle of in-  troduction for te material I will be taking up in te pages tat follow. As a media penomenon tat, among oter tings, produces a sense of te contemporary, te perennial news-flow of our times speaks to wat migt be termed tepresentismof te digital age. It points to te beguil- ingly deptless, tecnologized temporality of a news cycle wose ultimate orizon is always a relentless, ypnoticnow, a now for wic te past is by definition yesterday’s news, or peraps at best tomorrow’s miniseries. he twenty-four-our news is in tis regard a peculiarly telling, contemporary negation of istorical time and of te questions wit wic most attempts

[ ix ]