Theorizing Iberian Studies

In recent years, a series of proposals have been made with the aim of radically reconceptualizing the discipline of peninsular literary and culture studies (see Moraña, Resina, Santana). These proposals have in turn led scholars interested in peninsular literatures and cultures to reimagine the field from an Iberian perspective, as a means to recognize the national and linguistic diversity of the Iberian Peninsula. This diversity has too often been obscured by the implicit or explicit monolingualism of Hispanism and Lusofonia as disciplinary paradigms for the study of the language, literature, and culture of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. The growing number of scholars invested in Iberian Studies have instead asked how peninsular literary and cultural studies might be reimagined, and reinvigorated, by placing the Spanish and Portuguese canons into critical dialogue with each other, and with Galician, Catalan, Basque/Euskadi, and Latin American and North African immigrant writers, cultural actors, texts, and traditions. Major Iberian Studies symposia have been held in recent years at the University of Lisbon (2011), Stanford University (2011), The Ohio State University (2013), and UC Santa Barbara (2013). And Iberian Studies working groups have been formed in Europe (Project DIAA—Diálogos Ibéricos e Ibero-Americanos), the US Midwest (Midwest Iberian Studies Group), and California (UC Comparative Iberian Studies Working Group).

It is within this context that Robert Patrick Newcomb of the University of California, Davis, on behalf of the MLA Division on Luso-Brazilian Language and Literature, and in collaboration with the AATSP, convened a panel discussion on “Theorizing Iberian Studies,” which took place during the afternoon of Friday, January 9, 2015 at the MLA Convention in Vancouver. The panel reacted to a discrepancy recently noted by Santiago Pérez Isasi and Ângela Fernandes, who observe, “The field of Iberian Studies, which could be defined as the methodological consideration of the Iberian Peninsula as a complex, multilingual cultural and literary system, has known an exponential development in the last years; however, it still lacks solid theoretical and methodological reflections”(1). The Theorizing Iberian Studies panel brought together researchers who have actively contributed to the ongoing Iberian Studies debate, and who approach this emerging field from a variety of geographic, disciplinary, and linguistic perspectives.

The panel’s first speaker, Mario Santana (University of Chicago), delivered comments titled “Besides Theory: Critical Practices in Iberian Studies.” Santana noted that recent conferences and symposia have generated discussion on the (perceived) need to have a “theory” of Iberian Studies. However, rather than ‘theories,’ Santana argued that what is urgently needed are theoretically informed ‘practices’ that would facilitate the expansion of material archives, which in turn may facilitate the discovery and articulation of critical problems relevant to the field. Santana’s comments focused specifically on one of these areas in need of exploration, namely the role of translation in the constitution of literary inter-relations in the Iberian Peninsula.

The second speaker, Jorge Pérez (University of Kansas), asked, “¿De qué hablamos cuando hablamos de Estudios Ibéricos?” Pérez contended that a federal model of cultural coexistence within the Iberian Peninsula, though necessary, is insufficient if scholars are to truly reconfigure the discipline of peninsular studies. Drawing on the Mediterranean and North African dimensions of Iberian subjectivity, Pérez argued that if scholars fail to question the terms in which Iberian Studies have been conceived, they in effect promote a new paradigm that is already obsolete.

In “¿Cómo y desde qué posiciones hermenéuticas e ideológicas hablamos de Estudios Ibéricos?” the third speaker, Silvia Bermúdez (University of California, Santa Barbara) developed reflections first presented in May 2012 at the First Annual UC Comparative Iberian Studies Symposium, hosted at UC Davis. Her paper assessed how Iberian Studies can be a useful transcultural paradigm for understanding the diversity and complexity of the geopolitical space constituted by the Iberian Peninsula.

The final speaker, Robert Patrick Newcomb (University of California, Davis), addressed “Iberianism’s Lessons.” Newcomb discussed schemes developed by prominent fin-de-siècle Portuguese and Spanish writers to foster closer and more equitable political, economic, and cultural relations between the Iberian Peninsula’s component peoples...