| Popis: |
This article explores the construction of Catalan masculinity and Catalan identity in literature on the Spanish-Moroccan War of 1859/60. During the war, an immense amount of patriotic literature in Catalan language was published in Catalonia, in which the authors glorified the deeds of the Catalan general Joan Prim i Prats and of the Catalan volunteers who fought in the war. The article aims to illustrate, on the basis of the analysis of poems, theatre plays, patriotic songs, reports and chronicles written by Catalan authors, the importance of the First Spanish-Moroccan War for the development of Catalan identity. It attempts as well to demonstrate that the authors used the literature about the war to diffuse a specific Catalan ideal of masculinity and to stylize General Prim and the volunteers into national heroes, who embodied the strength of the Catalan cultural nation, since the Catalan community needed new idols after a long time of political and cultural decline caused by the centralist policies of the Spanish state. The Catalan ideal of masculinity was utilized to differentiate the Catalans from the other Spaniards whose masculinity was considered to be in decadence by the other European nations. |
