Women Warriors and National Heroes

A history of hero cults devoted to women warriors around the world, and the ways in which they were created and experienced in different national and transnational contexts

Revisiting ‘place’ in a realist novel: ‘Thinking space’ in Galdós’s Torquemada en la hoguera (1889)

Departing from the premise that Galdós’s close engagement with space and place deserves to be at the forefront of scholarly attention, this article provides an in-depth study of their significance in Torquemada en la hoguera. It begins by analysing the relationship between the novel’s locations and the real world, demonstrating that the author codes the city of Madrid to express social concerns and promote reader engagement. It then proceeds to examine the public and private spheres, before highlighting the “place of the imagination” in the novel. It reveals that, as in Galdós’s press articles, reality is used as a springboard in Torquemada en la hoguera and, drawing upon recent theories, it posits that places serve as a framework for engaging readers with contemporary concerns and as an imaginative springboard for Galdós. They trigger what is effectively a “thinking space” for the author and it is through unravelling their significance that we can fully appreciate Galdós’s psychological sensitivity, the novel’s modernity, its symbolic value, and imaginative depth. The article concludes by proposing that Galdós’s works deserve to be re-examined as “Novels of the Geographical Imagination” and urges readers to revisit the significance of space and place therein

Modern Spanish History in North America

In 2004, the British journal Social History published a special issue on modern Spain. This was, to my knowledge, an unprecedented event. My contribution was a short report entitled «Spanish historians and the English-speaking world» in which I looked at the place of modern Spain in European history, primarily in North America, and the role of historians from Spain. I started the piece by referring to a «cuarenta principales» song from the 1970s, «I never been to Spain», to make the underlyin..

Agustina de Aragón in Cairo. Women warriors and National Heroes in Global History

This article uses recent findings from studies of women warrior and national heroes as an enduring and complex transnational and global phenomenon to re-examine the figure of the iconic Spanish example of such a figure: Agustina de Aragón. Specifically, it explores how and why she, and not others, was turned into a national hero, how Spaniards managed the subversion of gender roles that a woman warrior represented, the effect of her long outliving the events of 1808 that made her famous, and the extent to and ways in which her figure as a woman warrior circulated beyond Spain.Este texto se construye a partir de estudios recientes centrados en las mujeres guerreras y los héroes y heroínas nacionales como un fenómeno transnacional y global duradero y complejo con el fin de reexaminar la figura del icónico ejemplo español de Agustina de Aragón. De forma concreta se explora cómo y por qué ella, y no otras, se convirtió en una heroína nacional, cómo los españoles lograron la subversión de los roles de género que representaba una mujer guerrera, el impacto de su prolongada supervivencia a los acontecimientos de 1808 que la hicieron famosa y el alcance y las formas en que su figura como mujer guerrera circularía más allá de la propia España

Asturias, 1934- 1984. 50 años para la reflexión

Bajo este lema la Fundación José Barreiro organizó en Oviedo y ocho pueblos más de Asturias, una serie de jornadas históricas para conmemorar el 50 aniversario de la revolución asturiana de octubre de 1934. La Fundación José Barreiro (institución Socialista) gastó muchas energías y mucho dinero (5 millones de pesetas) en organizar estas jornadas e hizo un gran esfuerzo para que colaboraran todas las personas relevantes, tanto historiadores como protagonistas, fueran las que fuesen sus simpatías o afiliación políticas. Entre los protagonistas figuraban Ramón Alvarez de la CNT, Juan Ambou del PCE, Manuel Grossi del Bloque Obrero y Campesino y Amaro del Rosal del PSOE y el PCE

Agustina de Aragón in Cairo. Women warriors and National Heroes in Global History

This article uses recent findings from studies of women warrior and national heroes as an enduring and complex transnational and global phenomenon to re-examine the figure of the iconic Spanish example of such a figure: Agustina de Aragón. Specifically, it explores how and why she, and not others, was turned into a national hero, how Spaniards managed the subversion of gender roles that a woman warrior represented, the effect of her long outliving the events of 1808 that made her famous, and the extent to and ways in which her figure as a woman warrior circulated beyond Spain