Trafficking Knowledge in Early Twentieth-Century Spain ― Centres of Exchange and Cultural Imaginaries

This study makes an original contribution to scholarship by tracking and evaluating the significance of the various individuals and (particularly) institutions responsible for the traffic of ideas both between Spain and the outside world, and also within Madrid and the interior. This has not been attempted before, and it is a necessary supplement to the usual focus on individual authors and texts, allowing us to appreciate the importance of setting the latter in the context of the circuits of knowledge functioning in Spain in their time. It looks in breadth and in detail at the nature of Spain's cultural and intellectual exchanges with Europe in the early decades of the twentieth century. Three features make it original in its approach. It focuses on a broad range of institutions, including publishing houses and journals, as "centres of exchange", and looks at how they promoted and facilitated Spain's contact with Europe. The second feature is that it foregrounds the idea of "cultural imaginaries" as the driving force behind Spain's exchanges with Europe. Thirdly, in terms of territory, it departs from a Franco/German-centred concept of Europe, paying particular attention to a Europe of the margins, in the form of England and Russia, as two countries that held particular attractions for the Spanish mind. While being centred on Madrid for its case-studies, it also pays specific attention to issues of internal dissemination. ALISON SINCLAIR is Professor of Spanish at the University of Cambridge.