Exchanges of modernity: Spain and the United Kingdom 1898-1936

Intellectual, cultural and commercial traffic between Spain and the United Kingdom in the early twentieth century was highly dynamic and plural. Yet it remains an under-studied topic because scholarship has tended to focus on single key figures (Gerald Brenan, for example, or Salvador Madariaga), because connections have been overshadowed by, or viewed through the prism of the Spanish Civil War and because the subsequent Francoist dictatorship further hampered research into some aspects of the period. The assumption that a simplistic orientalising gaze would largely define contemporaneous UK relations with and representations of Spain may also have discouraged nuanced study. Successful applicants will focus on one or more aspects of the diverse networks, points of contact and influences between the two states at a time of intense social change in both. Projects will explore how cultural, intellectual or commercial imports, exports, appropriations and translations between the very different, but diversely-connected societies of Spain and the UK might add to our understanding of the shaping forces of late modernity in both states.