Poetic Castles In Spain: British Romanticism And Figurations Of Iberia

Review

"…helpful, … and always generous in its scholarship." -- Bulletin of Spanish Studies, Vol.LXXX, No.1, 2003

provides ample materials ... for debate about some of the most contested terms in cultural studies, namely ‘nation’ and ‘gender.’ -- European Romantic Review, 2002, vol.13

Product Description

This study considers the various ways in which Spain figured in Romantic narrative verse, recovering the discursive materials employed in fictional representation, and assessing the relevance of this activity in the context of the dominant themes and preoccupations in contemporary British Culture. The texts examined here include medievalizing and chivalric fictions, Orientalist adventures set in Islamic Granada, and modern-day tales of the anti-Napoleonic campaign in the Peninsula. Recovering some of the outstanding works and issues elaborated by British Romanticism through the cultural geography of Spain, this study shows that the Iberian country was an inexhaustible source of imaginative materials for British culture at a time when its imperial boundaries were expanding and its geopolitical influence was increasing in Europe and overseas.