Temporalities of the Anti-Modern: Angel Ganivet's Neo-Romantic Mapping of Western Civilisation

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Abstract

This chapter analyses questions of temporality, modernity, and progress within an intra-European South–North axis in an age of a progressing Western modernity, the late-nineteenth century. The empirical evidence is drawn from the travel letters of the Spanish author and diplomat Angel Ganivet, written while he was stationed in Helsinki, and published in 1896–98: Cartas finlandesas (“Letters from Finland”, 1896–98) and his collection of six essays on Norwegian authors, Hombres del norte (“Men from the North”, 1898). Ganivet’s anti-modern and neo-Romantic attitudes were the foundation of his ideas of a strong dichotomy between the North and South of Europe, ideas that Stadius interprets as a critique of the linear conception of time that usually represented modernity and progress. Ganivet’s protests against northern ideas of development and modernity, as well as his promotion of a conservative nationalism implies his defence of a cyclical temporality and of the virtues of older times.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTime and Temporalities in European Travel Writing
EditorsPaula Henrikson, Christina Kullberg
Number of pages18
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherRoutledge
Publication date11 Dec 2020
Edition1
Pages210-227
ISBN (Print)978-0-367-65390-3
ISBN (Electronic)978-1-003-12924-0
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Dec 2020
MoE publication typeA3 Book chapter

Publication series

NameRoutledge Research on Travel Writing
PublisherRoutledge

Fields of Science

  • 6122 Literature studies
  • Angel Ganivet
  • travel letters

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