Los estudios ingleses en España (1900-1950): Contexto Ideológico-cultural, Autores y Obras

Spain entered the 20th century in the traumatic aftermath of the 1898 war against the United States and the loss of the last colonies of her formerly impressive Empire. This crisis was political and economical, as well as spiritual. Two groups of intellectuals, known as the Generation of’ 98 and the Generation of’ 14, were concerned with "regenerating" Spain and invoked a renovation of the national values from their own ideological perspectives. Despite this hostile cultural background for non-Hispanic issues, a number of writers (including philosophers and journalists) produced some interesting works dealing with topics currently specific of the English Studies field. As occurred in France and Italy, they engaged in discussing the signification of the British culture and literature, rather than the English language. The first part of this essay aims at examining the negative or ambivalent attitudes towards Britain in the works of Ganivet, Unamuno and Ortega y Gasset. The second part will deal with relevant publications on English studies written by Spanish authors (including Madariaga, Par, Gullón and Pujáis).