University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2004 Competing Visions of Spain: Joaquin Costa and Miguel de Unamuno's Searches for National Identity Alyson F. Baker University of Tennessee, Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Baker, Alyson F., "Competing Visions of Spain: Joaquin Costa and Miguel de Unamuno's Searches for National Identity. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2004. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/4658 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Alyson F. Baker entitled "Competing Visions of Spain: Joaquin Costa and Miguel de Unamuno's Searches for National Identity." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in History. Owen Bradley, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Thomas Burman, Alvaro Ayo Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the GraduateCouncil: I am submitting herewith a thesis writtenby Alyson F. Baker entitled "Competing Visions of Spain: Joaquin Costa and Miguel de Unamuno's Searches forNational Identity." I have examined the final paper copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partialfulfillment of the requirements for the degreeof Master of Arts, with a major in History. recommendits acceptance: Accepted forthe �I: Vice Chancellor Dean of Graduate dies COMPETINGVISIONS OF SPAIN:JOAQUIN COSTA AND MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO'SSEARCHES FOR NATIONAL IDENTITY A Thesis Presented forthe Masterof ArtsDegree The Universityof Tennessee, Knoxville Alyson F. Baker May2004 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many people who helped this projectcome to fruition. I would firstlike to thankmy advisor, Dr. Owen Bradley, forhis encouragement and advice. His insightfulcomments gave my paper a finalclarity that it would have otherwiselacked. I amalso gratefulfor the suggestions andassistance of my two other committeemembers, Dr. Thomas Burmanand Dr. AlvaroAyo. My conversations with ProfessorBurman, especially thoseconcerning Spanish historiography, the Moorish legacy, andthe "Black Legend," were especially useful. ProfessorAyo's discussions of africanismo, Regenerationism,and the complexities ofUnamuno'swritings were also extremely helpful. I am gratefulfor all my committeemembers' willingnessto meet with me numerous times over the course of the lastyear to discuss the various facetsof this project. I would also like to thankthree of my closest friends,Nashwa Van Houts, Angela Frye-Keaton, andElizabeth Dunham, whose helpfulcomments and suggestions are greatlyappreciated. Theirwords of wisdom and encouragement, which rangedfrom internationalphone calls to many"working" lunches and paper reading sessions, were integralparts of thisendeavor, and I am extremelygrateful for their friendship. Also particularlyencouraging were my parents,without whose support I could not have completed this project. 111 ABSTRACT This paper examines the competing visions of Spain offeredby Joaquin Costa and Miguel de Unamunoin the last decades of the nineteenth c_enturyand in the first years of the twentieth century, as they soughtto define the essence of Spanishness. In attemptsto describethe national character, they invoked common historicalmemories and symbols, which were open to numerous interpretations. These multi-faceted and often contradictorydepictions of Spainand its inhabitants presenteddiverse views of the country, attestingto the complexities of nationalidentities. Focusing primarily on the writings of Costa and Unamuno,this paperexamines their various portrayals of Spain, which changed somewhat in the wakeof 1898, and which influencedlater intellectuals such as Jose Ortegay Gasset. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page 1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................. 1 2. JOAQuiNCOSTA , VIGILANT GUARD OF EL CID'S "DOUBLE LOCKED" TOMB............................................................................................... 14 HistoriographicalTreatment of Costa andHis Works........................•.................. 15 El Cid Locked in His Tomb............................................ ....................................... 19 Africa as the Key to RegenerationBefore and After 1898 ....................................21 An Iron Surgeon Wielding a Scalpel..................................................................... 26 3. MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO, "SUFFER(ING) AMONG THESE PEOPLE" .. 29 HistoriographicalTreatment of Unamuno's Works ..............................................30 Invoking the Images of Don Quixoteand Don JuanTenorio ................................ 33 Don Juan and the Problems of Political Apathy andlgnorance ............................ 39 Spainar1.d its Moorish Brotb.er............................................................................... 41 4. JOSE ORTEGA Y GASSET'S APPRAISALSOF COSTA AND UNAMUNO'S COMPETING VISIONS OF SPAIN ...................................... .46 5. CONCULSION..................................................................................................... 52 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................... 55 VITA................................................................................................................................. 60 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In the latter half of thenineteenth century, continental Europeans witnessed profoundtransformations as new intellectualand political movements accompanied industrialization. With economic expansio�demographic changes,and the development of innovative technologies, science,reaso� andprogress became significant terms in Europeans'vocabularies, as many·linked material prosperityto human progress in the increasinglymechanized world. In responseto the spreadingindustrialization, Europeans on thecontinent mirroredBritain's earliermechanization and expansion of markets; they built canals,railways, and bridges in effortsto eliminatebarriers to internationaltrade andgarner national spheres of influencethrough imperial means. Material transformations, however,were not theonly changes that occurred during the second half of the 1800s. Witha renewed interest in science and in response to the problems thataccompanied industrializatio� currents of intellectual discourse began to center on theconsequences of urbanization andemphasize scientific approaches to studying all aspectsof mass society.European intellectuals responded to the increasing industrializationand its widespreadeffects in distinct ways. Mirroring the modem scientificadvances, some intellectualsemphasized objectivity andreason as they sought to offerrealistic portrayalsof the daily activities of ordinary people. Other men of letters, however,employed romanticrhetoric, stressingthe importance of individualism, feeling, emotio� imagination, andintuition over reason and science. Withits emphasison feeling,beauty, andemotio� Romanticism formedan integral partof nationalism's stress on the exaltation of feeling andidentity, which was also related to the Liberal assertion that a legitimatestate should be based on a collective 2 notion of the people insteadof beingbased on a monarch. With theemergence of nationalismin thelate eighteenthcentury, intellectuals respondedto Johannvon Herder's assertionthat each nationhad its ownnational identity or soul which included its own literature, language,and way of thinking;Herder, the fatherof Germannationalism, emphasized the importanceof belongingto a communitylinked by common traditions, language,customs, andinstitutions. He set out to rediscover the ethnicroots of Germany, romanticizingthe past, invoking common myths,and lionizing the geniusesof German descent. Manyintellectuals followed Herder'sromantic path of introspection, especially withthe tensions due to the intersectionsof modernityand tradition brought about by the nationalmovements forGerman andItalian unification, debatesbetween conservatives and liberals over therole of thestate, andincreasing industrialization. Scholarshave delineated the characteristicsof thevarious nationalisms that emerged, offeringdistinct definitionsof nation and its related characteristics. Inhis National Identity,Anthony Smithbroadly definesa nation as "a namedhuman population sharing an historic territory, common myths andhistorical memories, a mass, public culture, a common 1 economy andcommon legal rights andduties forall members." As a unifyingforce, the nation provides "repertoiresof sharedvalues, symbols, and tradition."2 According to him, intellectualelites play anintegral role in helping to formnational identities because they use these sharedsymbols and tradition, makingthem visible anddistinct forevery member, communicatingthe tenets of anabstract ideology in palpable, concrete