This book examines the way in which a group of key Spanish and Latin American intellectuals of the nineteenth and twentieth-centuries discussed the concept of the Spanish language. The contributors analyse the ways in which these discussions related to the construction of national identities and the idea of an Hispanic culture.

This book will be essential reading for sociolinguists, scholars of the Spanish language, historians of the Hispanic culture, and all those with an interest in the relationship between language and culture.

Reviews

'A fascinating excursion into the cultural history of ideas in Spain and Latin America over the last two centuries.' - Miranda Stewart, Bulletin of Spanish Studies

Contents

1 Nationalism, Hispanismo, and Monoglossic Culture

2 Linguistic Anti-Academicism and Hispanic Community: Saramient and Unamuno

3 The Ideological Construction of an Empirical Base: Selection and Elaboration in Andés Bello's Grammar

4 Historical Linguistics and Cultural History: The Polemic between Rufino José Cuervo and Juan Valera

5 Menédez Pidal, National Regeneration and the Linguistic Utopia

6 'For Their Own Good:' The Spanish Identity and Its Great Inquisitor, Miguel de Unamuno

7 A Nobleman Grabs the Broom: Ortega y Gasset's Verbal Hygiene

8 José María Arguedas: Peruvian Spanish as Subversive Assimilation

9 'Codo con Codo:' Hispanic Community and the Language Spectacle