Yolanda Rodríguez Pérez – författare

Spain has been a fruitful locus for the European imagination for centuries, and it has been most often perceived in black-and-white oppositions -- either as a tyrannical and fanatical force in the early modern period or as an imaginary geography of a 'Romantic' Spain in later centuries. However, the image of Spain, its culture and its inhabitants did not evolve inexorably from negative to positive. From the early modern period onwards, it responded to an ambiguous matrix of conflicting Hispanophobic and Hispanophilic representations. Just as in the nineteenth century latent negative stereotypes continued to resurface, even in the Romantic heyday, in the early modern period appreciation for Spain was equally undeniable. When Spain was a political and military superpower, it also enjoyed cultural hegemony with a literary Golden Age producing internationally hailed masterpieces. Literary Hispanophobia and Hispanophilia in Britain and the Low Countries (1550-1850) explores the protracted interest in Spain and its culture, and it exposes the co-existent ambiguity between scorn and fascination that characterizes Western historical perceptions, in particular in Britain and the Low Countries, two geographical spaces with a shared sense of historical connectedness and an overlapping, sometimes complicated, history with Spain.

Españoles en Europa: Identidad y Exilio desde la Edad Moderna a nuestros días focuses on exile as a great identifier of modern times. It constitutes a highly comprehensive view of Hispanic exile through a systematic, transnational and trans-historical perspective. Exile has played an essential role within Europe, which is presented as a complex conglomerate of cultures and literary traditions in constant transformation and dialogue. In the particular case of Hispanic exile, an undeniable complexity arises throughout its history due to various political, economic, cultural and aesthetic factors and to the essential significance of absent figures in the formation of Hispanic culture and identity.Españoles en Europea: Identidad y Exilio desde la Edad Moderna a nuestros días se concentra en el fenómeno del exilio como gran identificador de tiempos modernos, abordándolo sistemáticamente desde una innovadora perspectiva transnacional y transhistórica.Europa se presenta como un complejo conglomerado de culturas y de tradiciones literarias en constante transformación y diálogo, donde el fenómeno del exilio ha desempeñado un papel esencial. En el caso particular del exilio hispánico, una clara complejidad se acentúa y agudiza a lo largo de su historia debido a diversos factores políticos, económicos, culturales y estéticos, siendo además innegable la influencia esencial que han tenido los ausentes en la formación de la cultura y la identidad del país.Contributors: Beatriz Calvo Martín, Carlos Yebra López, Cristian Crusat, Dagmar Vandebosch, Isabel-Clara Lorda Vidal, Fernando Díaz Ruiz, Jorge L. Catalá-Carrasco, Kirsten Bakker, Konstantin Mierau, Manuel Aznar Soler, Manuel de la Fuente, María José González Dávila, Marije Hirstova.

This book explores the protracted interest in Spain and its culture, and it exposes the co-existent ambiguity between scorn and fascination that characterizes Western historical perceptions, in particular in Britain and the Low Countries.