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Articles by Michael IAROCCI
eHumanista, 2022
Analysis of the relationship between romantic melancholy, modernization and empire in 19th-centur... more Analysis of the relationship between romantic melancholy, modernization and empire in 19th-century Spanish Literature. Discussion of several case studies.
A Song Before Execution: José Espronceda's "Un reo de muerte", 2019
This article/chapter develops an analysis of Espronceda's "El reo de muerte" in both its immediat... more This article/chapter develops an analysis of Espronceda's "El reo de muerte" in both its immediate historical context and in relation to Victor Hugo's Le denier jour d'un condemné. Along the way it comments on the role of stylization and aesthetic distance within romantic social critique.
Introduction to José de Espronceda's most famous narrative poem. The Introduction situates the po... more Introduction to José de Espronceda's most famous narrative poem. The Introduction situates the poem in its historical and political context. It examines its rewriting of the Don Juan myth, and its relationship to modern fantastic literature (Todorov), psychoanalysis (Freud), existentialism , and post-structuralist models of languange and desire (Derrida, Lacan). It highlights the modern ambiguity of the poem and the multiple interpretive registers it engages.
A History of the Spanish Novel, 2015
This chapter provides an overview of the romantic historical novel in Spain. It takes up Enrique... more This chapter provides an overview of the romantic historical novel in Spain. It takes up Enrique Gil y Carrasco's 1844 "The Lord of Bembibre" as a case study of the genre.
An overview of poetry written in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
Analysis of Bécquer's "Introduction Sinfónica" and its relationship to the socio-historical quest... more Analysis of Bécquer's "Introduction Sinfónica" and its relationship to the socio-historical question of poverty.
An imperial power invades and occupies an authoritarian country in the name of more enlightened, ... more An imperial power invades and occupies an authoritarian country in the name of more enlightened, liberal, democratic values. The occupation initially seems successful, and many of the political elites of the invaded nation realign themselves with the new regime. The vast majority of the natives, however, are far less hospitable than the occupier might have imagined, and while the empire " s military forces easily seize and control key cities, throughout the country resistance to occupation quickly erupts into a popular insurgency characterized by guerrilla warfare. Longstanding assumptions governing the legitimate uses of violence are abruptly rewritten, and the empire is slowly bogged down in a war it will ultimately lose. At the same time, as insurgent violence escalates, native representative assemblies gather to imagine the political future of the nation in the form of a new constitution. These are the first decades of the 1800s, the occupied nation is Spain, and the enlightened empire is Napoleon " s. The almost uncanny resonance of this tale throughout much of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, marked as they have been by questions of invasion, occupation, liberation, non-state violence, insurgency, and nation-building, speaks eloquently to the potential value of revisiting representations of the Napoleonic era. 1 Indeed, my interest in beginning with this particular evocation of Napoleonic imperialism is primarily to focus on war and empire and their relationship to the symbolic birth of modern Spain as narrated in the ten novels comprising the first series of Benito Pérez Galdós " s Episodios nacionales. Arguably Spain " s most highly regarded novelist after Miguel de Cervantes, Galdós publishes the series between 1873 and 1875, and the novels focus on historical events from 1805 to 1814. The series is the most protracted nineteenth-century Spanish novelistic treatment of the Napoleonic occupation and Spanish War of Independence, surpassing even Tolstoy " s War and Peace in extension, and it continues to garner critical attention today, as readers venture beyond Galdós " s better-known novelas contemporáneas in order to understand more fully his complex, evolving conception of history and its relationship to the novel-genre. 2 In keeping with the classic features of the historical novel, the Episodios artfully blend meticulously researched historical narrative with the fictional adventures of the series " protagonist-narrator, Gabriel Araceli, and it is precisely the characteristic interplay between historical verisimilitude and fictional invention that imbues these novels with a curiously contemporary resonance for our own, putatively postmodern age in which the distinctions between history and fiction seem to have become
Book Reviews by Michael IAROCCI
Hispanic Review, 1993
... Derek Flitter's use of the history of ideas offers a corrective to the recent prepondera... more ... Derek Flitter's use of the history of ideas offers a corrective to the recent preponderance of political approaches to Spanish Romanticism, countering their stress on its radical and liberal associations with a detailed demonstration that the majority of Spanish Romantic writers ...
eHumanista, 2022
Analysis of the relationship between romantic melancholy, modernization and empire in 19th-centur... more Analysis of the relationship between romantic melancholy, modernization and empire in 19th-century Spanish Literature. Discussion of several case studies.
A Song Before Execution: José Espronceda's "Un reo de muerte", 2019
This article/chapter develops an analysis of Espronceda's "El reo de muerte" in both its immediat... more This article/chapter develops an analysis of Espronceda's "El reo de muerte" in both its immediate historical context and in relation to Victor Hugo's Le denier jour d'un condemné. Along the way it comments on the role of stylization and aesthetic distance within romantic social critique.
Introduction to José de Espronceda's most famous narrative poem. The Introduction situates the po... more Introduction to José de Espronceda's most famous narrative poem. The Introduction situates the poem in its historical and political context. It examines its rewriting of the Don Juan myth, and its relationship to modern fantastic literature (Todorov), psychoanalysis (Freud), existentialism , and post-structuralist models of languange and desire (Derrida, Lacan). It highlights the modern ambiguity of the poem and the multiple interpretive registers it engages.
A History of the Spanish Novel, 2015
This chapter provides an overview of the romantic historical novel in Spain. It takes up Enrique... more This chapter provides an overview of the romantic historical novel in Spain. It takes up Enrique Gil y Carrasco's 1844 "The Lord of Bembibre" as a case study of the genre.
An overview of poetry written in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
Analysis of Bécquer's "Introduction Sinfónica" and its relationship to the socio-historical quest... more Analysis of Bécquer's "Introduction Sinfónica" and its relationship to the socio-historical question of poverty.
An imperial power invades and occupies an authoritarian country in the name of more enlightened, ... more An imperial power invades and occupies an authoritarian country in the name of more enlightened, liberal, democratic values. The occupation initially seems successful, and many of the political elites of the invaded nation realign themselves with the new regime. The vast majority of the natives, however, are far less hospitable than the occupier might have imagined, and while the empire " s military forces easily seize and control key cities, throughout the country resistance to occupation quickly erupts into a popular insurgency characterized by guerrilla warfare. Longstanding assumptions governing the legitimate uses of violence are abruptly rewritten, and the empire is slowly bogged down in a war it will ultimately lose. At the same time, as insurgent violence escalates, native representative assemblies gather to imagine the political future of the nation in the form of a new constitution. These are the first decades of the 1800s, the occupied nation is Spain, and the enlightened empire is Napoleon " s. The almost uncanny resonance of this tale throughout much of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, marked as they have been by questions of invasion, occupation, liberation, non-state violence, insurgency, and nation-building, speaks eloquently to the potential value of revisiting representations of the Napoleonic era. 1 Indeed, my interest in beginning with this particular evocation of Napoleonic imperialism is primarily to focus on war and empire and their relationship to the symbolic birth of modern Spain as narrated in the ten novels comprising the first series of Benito Pérez Galdós " s Episodios nacionales. Arguably Spain " s most highly regarded novelist after Miguel de Cervantes, Galdós publishes the series between 1873 and 1875, and the novels focus on historical events from 1805 to 1814. The series is the most protracted nineteenth-century Spanish novelistic treatment of the Napoleonic occupation and Spanish War of Independence, surpassing even Tolstoy " s War and Peace in extension, and it continues to garner critical attention today, as readers venture beyond Galdós " s better-known novelas contemporáneas in order to understand more fully his complex, evolving conception of history and its relationship to the novel-genre. 2 In keeping with the classic features of the historical novel, the Episodios artfully blend meticulously researched historical narrative with the fictional adventures of the series " protagonist-narrator, Gabriel Araceli, and it is precisely the characteristic interplay between historical verisimilitude and fictional invention that imbues these novels with a curiously contemporary resonance for our own, putatively postmodern age in which the distinctions between history and fiction seem to have become
Hispanic Review, 1993
... Derek Flitter's use of the history of ideas offers a corrective to the recent prepondera... more ... Derek Flitter's use of the history of ideas offers a corrective to the recent preponderance of political approaches to Spanish Romanticism, countering their stress on its radical and liberal associations with a detailed demonstration that the majority of Spanish Romantic writers ...
Revista Hispanica Moderna, 2010
List of book publications
Modern Humanities Research Association eBooks, Apr 23, 2019
Revista De Estudios Hispanicos, 1999
Revista Hispánica Moderna, 1998
Oxford University Press eBooks, May 1, 2015
This chapter provides an overview of the romantic historical novel in Spain. It takes up Enrique ... more This chapter provides an overview of the romantic historical novel in Spain. It takes up Enrique Gil y Carrasco's 1844 "The Lord of Bembibre" as a case study of the genre.
Hispanic Review, 1997
... frente a las noventa cartas publicadas como Cartas marruecas, supuestamente habia un total de... more ... frente a las noventa cartas publicadas como Cartas marruecas, supuestamente habia un total de ciento cincuenta cartas en el manuscrito original, segin informa el editor: El manuscrito contenia otro tanto como lo impreso, pero parte tan con-siderable quedara ... Derrida, Jaques. ...
Hispanic Review, 1999
... Luis Alberto de Cuenca. ... mundo libre, resplandeciente y feliz; yo he velado por ti siempre... more ... Luis Alberto de Cuenca. ... mundo libre, resplandeciente y feliz; yo he velado por ti siempre porque te habia coronado con las primeras flores de mi ... vez el repentino encuentro con lo aparentemente maravilloso-el viento, los recuerdos, la musa-se convertia en paliativo parcial de ...
Vanderbilt e-Journal of Luso-Hispanic Studies, Apr 9, 2009
An imperial power invades and occupies an authoritarian country in the name of more enlightened, ... more An imperial power invades and occupies an authoritarian country in the name of more enlightened, liberal, democratic values. The occupation initially seems successful, and many of the political elites of the invaded nation realign themselves with the new regime. The vast majority of the natives, however, are far less hospitable than the occupier might have imagined, and while the empire"s military forces easily seize and control key cities, throughout the country resistance to occupation quickly erupts into a popular insurgency characterized by guerrilla warfare. Longstanding assumptions governing the legitimate uses of violence are abruptly rewritten, and the empire is slowly bogged down in a war it will ultimately lose. At the same time, as insurgent violence escalates, native representative assemblies gather to imagine the political future of the nation in the form of a new constitution. These are the first decades of the 1800s, the occupied nation is Spain, and the enlightened empire is Napoleon"s. The almost uncanny resonance of this tale throughout much of the twentieth and early twentyfirst centuries, marked as they have been by questions of invasion, occupation, liberation, non-state violence, insurgency, and nation-building, speaks eloquently to the potential value of revisiting representations of the Napoleonic era. 1 Indeed, my interest in beginning with this particular evocation of Napoleonic imperialism is primarily to focus on war and empire and their relationship to the symbolic birth of modern Spain as narrated in the ten novels comprising the first series of Benito Pérez Galdós"s Episodios nacionales. Arguably Spain"s most highly regarded novelist after Miguel de Cervantes, Galdós publishes the series between 1873 and 1875, and the novels focus on historical events from 1805 to 1814. The series is the most protracted nineteenth-century Spanish novelistic treatment of the Napoleonic occupation and Spanish War of Independence, surpassing even Tolstoy"s War and Peace in extension, and it continues to garner critical attention today, as readers venture beyond Galdós"s betterknown novelas contemporáneas in order to understand more fully his complex, evolving conception of history and its relationship to the novel-genre. 2 In keeping with the classic features of the historical novel, the Episodios artfully blend meticulously researched historical narrative with the fictional adventures of the series" protagonistnarrator, Gabriel Araceli, and it is precisely the characteristic interplay between historical verisimilitude and fictional invention that imbues these novels with a curiously contemporary resonance for our own, putatively postmodern age in which the distinctions between history and fiction seem to have become
Revista canadiense de estudios hispánicos, Apr 24, 2019
University of Toronto Press eBooks, Dec 16, 2022
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Jan 13, 2005