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Salas y Quiroga’s Anglo-Saxon England: a Psychological and Sociological Portrait of Power

Salas y Quiroga’s Anglo-Saxon England: a Psychological and Sociological Portrait of Power

By Paloma Tejada Caller

ATLANTIS. Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies, Vol.31.1 (2009)

Abstract: The aim of this paper is ultimately to contribute new insights from current explorations of Englishness in Spain. More specifically, a selected narrative written by Jacinto Salas y Quiroga in 1846 is carefully analysed from a cross-cultural standpoint, taking into account the ideological and discursive bases on which nations are built.

The article focuses on how Anglo-Saxon England is constructed in Salas’ book, as opposed to the image portrayed in other narratives of a similar nature, published in Spain during the nineteenth century. After the analysis of Salas’ textual, rhetorical and linguistic strategies, results show that in this original contribution, the expected Anglo-Saxons’ territorial and ethnic identity occupies only a background position, whereas the dynamic interaction of two conceptual types or characters, the powerful vs. the weak, is driven to the forefront.

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Through the use of heterodox schemes Salas deviates from the Spanish common cultural and historiographic practice, and completes a powerful and novel image of Anglo-Saxons, which performs a well-defined function in mid-nineteenth century Spain.

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