Epilogue

reflections on the geographical turn

Roberta Johnson

pp. 323-326

in: Tania Gentic, Francisco LaRubia-Prado (eds), Imperialism and the wider atlantic, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

Johnson argues that this volume's essays break through the temporal bias that has constrained studies of Spanish Modernism by offering geographically oriented readings of canonical and non-canonical texts. Considering geographical connections, especially Spain's cultural relations with the Western Hemisphere–both North and South America–opens up Peninsular literature and thought in a way that is both provocative and fruitful. Such an approach moves us beyond the Spain/Latin America divide that plagues much previous research and curricula. The "geographical turn," as Johnson calls the orientation of this volume, has the potential to revive Peninsular Studies that have been suffering in some foreign language departments and programs in U.S. colleges and universities. One surprising result of the "geographical turn" is the resuscitation of forgotten figures who are studied in several essays. The essays are uniformly innovative and stimulating and point toward new directions for the future.