The Rise of Euroskepticism. Europe and Its Critics in Spanish Culture by Luis Martin-Estudillo (review)

Luis Martin-Estudillo's book is a welcome addition to the discussion on Euroskepticism, which has grown exponentially since the rejection of the European Constitution (2004) and, more pointedly, after the economic crisis of 2008. This book is part of an ambitious trend in Hispanic literary and cultural studies to approach not just a literary corpus, but a historical subject or problem in all its complexity. In this case, the issue of Euroskepticism is central to any discussion of contemporary Spain: the historical period of the post-dictatorship in which we still live (1975-2019) has been fundamentally shaped by Spain's admission to the European Union (1986). A 200-year period of separation triggered by Spain's imperial decadence and France and Britain's hegemonic rise at the end of the 18th century finally came to a close in 1986 with the Spanish European membership, which was apparently endorsed unanimously by the entire country, but it had many forgotten dissenting voices. Martin-Estudillo's book explores the history of those voices that dissented regarding the necessity or desirability of this union, starting in the early 20th century through what he calls "the topology of Spanish Euroskepticism: modernity, gender, and location" (7). His approach is historical or archaeological and, in this respect, successful.

The introductory chapter covers the origins and formation of the initial separation at the end of the 18th century and the discourse that shaped it, Orientalism, as well as later additions such as "The Prescott's paradigm" of Spanish imperial decadence (16) all the way to the present.

The two chapters of the first section, entitled "Europe on the Horizon," are an intellectual history of 20^th-century Spanish Euroskepticism leading up to the end of the Franco dictatorship. The author analyzes separately the intellectuals in exile (Unamuno, Zambrano, Ferrater Mora, and Aub) in chapter 1, and those who lived under the dictatorship (Giménez Caballero, Ortega y Gasser, Ridruejo) in chapter 2, which, in a final section, also includes poets such as Gimferrer, Carnero, Colinas, Panero Jr., and other lesser canonical writers such as Azcona and Umbral.

The second and last section of the book, divided into three chapters, covers the contemporary period from the end of the Franco dictatorship to the economic crisis of 2008 and its aftermath. In chapter three, Martín-Estudillo studies the work of Josep Boadella and the theater group Els Joglars for Spanish TV, the ideology of novelist Jorge Semprún, and playwright Juan Mayorga as a way to outline the initial period from the Transition to Spain's admission to the EU in 1986. Chapter four covers the period from 1986 to 2008, when Spain had finally become a full member of Europe, through the work of videoartist Valeriano López, poet Mercedes Cebrián, and Catalan novelist Jordi Puntí. In chapter 5, perhaps the most elaborate and powerful, the author studies the aftermath of the crisis of 2008, through the work of photographer Carlos Spottorno and installation-artist Santiago Sierra. A short epilogue closes the book.

Martin-Estudillo has accomplished a very interesting cultural archaeology through the forgotten work of well-known authors, such as Unamuno, who appears, under a new light, as "the founder of Spain's own modern tradition of Euroskepticism" (10), and the work of major artists who are less known to the general audience, such as installation-artist Santiago Sierra. The combination of different cultural discourses and media, such as literature, television, and theater, show the spread of Euroskepticism throughout Spanish culture. Chapter 1 presents perhaps the least known aspects of this historical development, as most progressive writers and philosophers in exile develop a growing skepticism to the postwar Europe of the Holocaust and, in turn, Francoist intellectuals, fascist defenders of the singularity of Spanish imperialism, eventually come to embrace the necessity of a European union. The graphic nature of chapter five, enriched with many images of photography and art...