The central argument of this volume is that literary discourse has actively developed forms of subjectivity in relation to institutions of class power and the state in Spain between 1550 and 1850.Key themes and arguments running throughout the text include:
- Formation of Subjectivity: The volume traces the evolution of the “subject” from the Renaissance to the mid-nineteenth century, arguing that literature reflects sensibilities that seek to unify the social, political, economic, and linguistic conditions of individual experience.
- The Aesthetic as Mediation: Cultural and literary discourses serve as a “sphere of the aesthetic,” allowing subjects to imagine their mode of subjection to or participation in the social order. This aesthetic domain helps individuals accept detachment from specific social contexts as a requirement for subjection to the state.
- State-Subject Relationship: The studies are inspired by the “inseparability of state and subject representations”. During the Renaissance and Baroque, the state shaped individual identity through its own discourses on ethnicity, sexuality, knowledge, and values.
- Literary Autonomy and Commodification: The relationship between literature and the state shifted over time. In the eighteenth century, the state directly recruited literature into its service. By the nineteenth century, literature became a market commodity, regaining a certain autonomy while paradoxically gaining new strength by functioning “all on its own” as a practice concerned with inner feelings.
- Class Dynamics: The volume emphasizes how class conflicts and social dynamics informed the formation of both the state and the subject. For instance, it explores how mercantile social relations within waning feudalism or capitalist relations influenced the “literary”.
- Inclusion and Exclusion: A major focus is how the state and literature collaborated to define cultural notions of “nation,” “citizen,” and “subject” in ways that realized certain social identities while marginalizing or excluding others based on race, gender, and ethnicity.
This volume, Culture and the State in Spain: 1550–1850, explores the historical relationship between subjectivity and the state in Spain from the Renaissance to the mid-nineteenth century. The central argument is that literary and cultural discourse actively developed forms of subjectivity in relation to class power and state institutions during this period.
Key Thematic Pillars
- Subject Formation: The book traces the transition from early modern subjects to nineteenth-century bourgeois subjectivities. It argues that literature serves as an “aesthetic sphere” where individuals imagine their participation in or subjection to the social order.
- State and Culture: During the Renaissance and Baroque, the state shaped identity through its own discourses on ethnicity, sexuality, and values. By the 18th century, the state directly recruited literature into its service for ideological legitimation.
- Literary Autonomy: In the 19th century, literature became a market commodity, gaining a degree of autonomy from direct state control while paradoxically strengthening its influence by focusing on “inner feelings”.
- Inclusion and Exclusion: A recurring theme is how the state used literature and law to define “nation” and “citizen,” often by marginalizing groups based on race, gender, and ethnicity.
Chapter Highlights
- Early Modernity: Studies analyze how language and education supported the absolutist state and how the “sexualization” of minorities like Jews and Muslims helped construct a Spanish national identity. Other essays examine the literary discourse of wealth and the transition from feudal to mercantile values.
- Institutional Frameworks: Research explores the patronage system, noting that authorial subjectivity as we know it today was rooted in the emerging market for recreational books. One study details the wide availability of popular religious texts and how they could lead to unpredictable, heretical interpretations by lower-class readers.
- Visual and Symbolic Culture: The ideological implications of emblematic literature are analyzed as tools for producing unity between individuals and the baroque state’s objectives.
- Transition to Liberalism: Essays investigate why “rationalization” failed in the early 19th century due to a weak civil society. Legal and theatrical representations (such as Don Juan Tenorio) are analyzed to show how the “national subject” was often a hierarchy of differentiated subjectivities.
- Nineteenth-Century Consolidation: The final chapters examine how literature became a site for symbolic negotiations to imagine what “Spain” should be, helping consolidate bourgeois rule after the revolutions of 1848.
The volume concludes by linking these historical debates to contemporary discussions about centralized vs. regionalized conceptions of Spain.