Abstract

Under the current cartographies of globalism, where frontiers mutate, vacillate, and mark the contiguity of discourse, questioning the Spanish border seems a particularly urgent task. The volume engages a wide spectrum of ambivalent regions—subjects that currently are, or have been seen in the past, as spaces of negotiation and contestation. However, they converge in their perception of the “Spanish” nation-space as a historical and ideological construct that is perpetually going through transformations and reformations. This volume advocates the position that intellectual responsibility must lead us to engage openly in the issues underlying current social and political tensions.

Benita Samperdro Vizcaya is Associate Professor of Colonial Studies in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Hofstra University. Her research interests focus on issues of Spanish colonialism in both Africa and Latin America, specifically on processes of decolonization and postcolonial legacies. She has published extensively on empire, exile, colonial discourse and resistance, and most recently on topics relating to Equatorial Guinea, the only African state where Spanish remains the official language. She is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Spanish Colonialism, African Decolonizations, and the Politics of Place.

Simon Doubleday is Associate Professor of History at Hofstra University, and Executive Editor of the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies. He is author of The Lara Family: Crown and Nobility in Medieval Spain (Harvard, 2001), and co-editor, with David Coleman, of In the Light of Medieval Spain. Islam, the West, and the Relevance of History (Palgrave, 2008). He is currently completing a post-empirical study of the thirteenth-century border-crossing Castilian courtesan María Pérez, “La Balteira.”

“This volume constitutes an outstanding example of the fascinating potential of borders, whether real, imaginary, historical, religious, political or cultural, providing a genuine example of the potential of cultural studies to encompass different historical, cultural and theoretical threads…The sheer range of geographical, cultural and conceptual borders covered by the volume is fascinating and offers a promising venue for Spanish cultural studies.”  ·  Journal of Romance Studies

“[This] collection provides stimulating perspectives, drawn from a wide historical and geographical range, that refresh the theories, methods, and goals through which we deal with border issues.”  ·  H-SAE

“These twelve essays consider in an exemplary fashion geographical, cultural, gender, linguistic, disciplinary, and other Spanish borders…All-in-all, this book is not only worth reading, but an admirable example of where contemporary Hispanism can be found.”  ·  Bulletin of Spanish Studies

“Read together or individually, these essays mark an impressive display of knowledge of Spanish cultural and historical identity both in width and profundity, and, more importantly, of the marginalized, suppressed, or ignored elements that undermine that knowledge. If you think you know Spain, think again; you will find something, if not many things, in this collection to challenge your perceptions. A valuable resource for students and professors alike, as well as any reader with a desire to better understand the complications, ambiguities, and fluctuations of modern and historical Spain.”  ·  Bulletin of the Association of Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies