Exotic Nation: Maurophilia and the Construction of Early Modern Spain (review)

Barbara Fuchs's Exotic Nation explores how cultural practices inherited from al-Andalus - which she terms 'Moorishness' or, borrowing from Bourdieu, Moorish habitus - complicate perceptions of Spain between the fall of Granada in 1492 and the expulsion of the Moriscos beginning in 1609. In other words, her book is an attempt at deconstruction of Spain's orientalism during the early modern period. Two crucial moments in the stigmatization of Moorishness are pointed out in Chapter 1: first, the propaganda against Enrique IV of Castile in the late fifteenth century; and second, the 'desemitization' of Spain during the sixteenth century. Fuchs rightly emphasizes that the Iberian quotidian was imbued by Andalusi-derived practices, first perceived as exotic by European travellers such as Andrea Navagero, Antoine de Lalaing and others. Chapter 2 follows this point with respect to architecture, showing that what is usually termed Mudéjar became part and parcel of the building habitus. The attempts to reduce so-called maurophilia to a fashion are problematized in Chapter 3. Fuchs stresses that Spanish attachment to Moorish textiles obeys a long-term pattern of use (peeping at the wardrobe of Queen Isabel the Catholic is enough to drive this point home), and also that the popularity of the romances moriscos and the reaction to them constitute a symptom of a deeper tension at the very heart of Spanish society. Chapter 4 focuses on Moorishness in aristocratic culture, drawing examples from horsemanship with a particular emphasis on the juego de cañas, a chivalric game which became usual on special occasions such as Philip's wedding to Mary Tudor, the kind of event that would reinforce the perception of Spain as exotic beyond the Pyrenees. The construction of Spain as racially different in the Black Legend is examined in Chapter V through English pamphlets (a construction best encapsulated by Edmund Spenser in 1596 - 'of all nations under heaven I suppose the Spaniard is the most mingled, most uncertain, and most bastardly'), and then is contrasted with the more ambiguous treatments of this issue in Spanish narratives, most notably Mateo Alemán's 'Ozmín y Daraja'. Finally, an epilogue provides some reflections on the role of Moorishness in the Spain of the autonomías, and Fuchs finishes her book with a more personal note expressing her suspicion that Moorishness is at the root of the ingrained distrust of Hispanism in the US academy too.

Exotic Nation manages to deal with a very complex topic in very accessible terms. Fuchs is extremely adept at introducing background information without boring the specialized reader. Both theoretical concepts and Hispanic customs are clearly and concisely explained; moreover, all quotations are translated into English. A degree of rashness can be detected sometimes when dealing with some texts and scholars. Antoine de Lalaing allegedly 'introduces the paradox of the place of the Moors within Spain - they are compelled to leave their pays unless they convert, but the ones who choose not to convert go back to their pays, by which Lalaing presumably means North Africa' (22), when his text straightforwardly reads that Queen Isabel 'comanda que [...] widassent de ses pays [i.e. the Queen's] ou se feissent baptisier et tenir nostre foy: ce que pluseurs firent [...]. Les aultres retournèrent en leurs pays [i.e. the Moors']' (21) - no paradox as far as the courtier's mind is concerned. Similarly, Fuchs (149, n. 29) reproaches Tate and Lawrance for confusing issues with their allusion to Enrique IV's 'Islamofilia', without taking into account the exquisitely objective style of both scholars, who are clearly referring to the charges levelled against the Castilian king. Given the skill with which Fuchs manages to introduce basic information, it is surprising that she makes no allusion to the judeoconverso ascendancy of Mateo Alemán, though she vaguely indicates that Jorge de Montemayor and Antonio Villegas 'are generally presumed to have been conversos' (37) - the latter's judeoconverso origins have been proven by...