“‘Essential’ Spain, Anglophone Others: Travel and Iberian Identity” The central question of my dissertation is the negotiation of Spanish identity, parting from the assumption that “Spanish” has meaning in a cultural as opposed to a purely political context. I explore Spain’s interaction with foreign cultures, particularly Britain and the United States, because this encounter provides a fruitful opportunity to analyze what constitutes the Spanish “us” as opposed to a hypothetical “them.” Travel between Spain and the Anglophone world—be it tourism, visiting professorships, or the simple transport of ideas—is the focus of my investigation. Intrinsic to this investigation is a conceptualization of Spanish national identity as a sort of puzzle that has been reworked over the past several centuries, a puzzle that hinges on divergent valorizations of “Spanishness”. That is, attempts to define Spanish culture as a sort of coherent unit with an essence or definitive identifying traits is most logical when either praising or promoting Spain (as for its famous artists or its natural beauty) or, conversely, when lamenting Spain’s perceived atraso. My dissertation focuses on two highly specific sites of interaction between Spain and the English-speaking world: British tourists in Spain, and Spanish nationals working in U.S.

Catherine Simpson