Feminism and Modernity in Carmen de Burgos´ Travelogues from Europe and the Nordic North at the beginning of the 20th century
At the beginning of the 20th century the Spanish writer, journalist and women´s rights activist, Carmen de Burgos, made several journeys in Europe. These journeys are reproduced in her published chronicles and three travelogues. Previous research has focused on Burgos’ literary and political writings, but largely ignored her travel texts. Furthermore, research on cultural contacts between Spain and the Nordic countries has not taken into account Burgos’ depiction of the Nordic North. Taking into consideration Burgos´ importance in the contemporary Spanish debate on the nation´s modernization and women´s rights, an analysis of how these issues are dealt with in her travel texts is an important task to undertake. Burgos’ stances in the European geography rendered in the travelogues can be observed in a wider geographical and ideological setting, in which the female subject presented in the texts can be observed in relation to the changing and gender-coded space of travelling. The aim of the research is to investigate the travelling subject represented in the texts, and to analyse how discourses on Spanish feminism and modernity are depicted in an early 20th century European setting, and to place a special focus on Burgos’ portrayal of the Nordic North. The texts will be analyzed on the basis of a contextual framework consisting of Burgos’ literary and journalistic production, archive material and other contemporary writers´ texts in the travel genre.
Elena Lindholm Narvaez, Language Studies, Umeå University
2009-2014
The aim of the project has been to examine discourses on gender, feminism and modernity in travel writing by the Spanish feminist Carmen de Burgos from Europe during the early 20th century, with a special focus on the Nordic region.
The most important results are the findings of depictions of Scandinavia as an imaginary place in contemporary Spanish debates on modernity, as well as insights into the conditions for women's travel writing in Spain and Europe during the period.
In Burgos's journalistic writing, the Nordic region had a status as an imaginary place where progressive ideas on feminism and modernity were tested and put in relation to Spanish conditions. Such utopian depictions of the region are also found in texts by other Spanish intellectuals from the period, although Burgos has emerged as one of the most prominent names when it comes to spreading images of Nordic modernity to the Spanish general public during the early 20th century.
Two of the project's most important publications, "La modernidad en otra parte" and "Perspectivismo republicano" show the complexity in women's travel writing and particularly in a Spanish woman's depiction of Nordic modernity during the early 20th century. Travelling was part of Burgos' creation of an identity as the "new woman" in Spanish media. The results from this project show the complexities and negotiations that are necessary in order to maintain that identity in a highly conservative public sphere. These negotiations are traceable in the contrast between the travelling female subject represented in the documentary travelogues on one hand, and in fiction on the other.
Another important publication within the project is "The Valkyrie in a Bikini", a chapter in the anthology "Communicating the North", where results from the studies of the project's contextual material are presented. The study shows that the stereotypical image of the Nordic woman as particularly liberated and modern, originates from the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, but became particularly important in Spain around 1900. The research shows how Carmen de Burgos and other feminist or progressive intellectuals used the Nordic women stereotype for exploring the possible limits of women's emancipation.
The project has generated new research questions considering Ellen Key's influence on Spanish reform pedagogy and Spanish debates on sexuality and gender relations before the Franco regime (1939). Until present day, Spain has been a blank spot in research on European reception of Key's texts and ideas. An explanation for that omission might be that Key never visited Spain personally, even though her texts were translated into Spanish and seem to have been quite influential in progressive circles. Issues concerning Key's importance for Spanish debates on matrimony, women's emancipation and childcare during the period are important to explore, since they can shed new light on how these topics were debated in Spain, in comparison to the rest of Europe.
Furthermore, the inquiry in the project's contextual material, shows that the notion of a cultural contrast between European north and south -where south becomes modernity's other- was a common trope in texts written by Spanish progressive intellectuals. This idea of a north south dichotomy in European progressive debates from the early 20th century needs to be explored further.
International collaborations have been established within the project, with several networks and research environments outside Sweden. Among those the international research program Nordic Spaces at Södertörn College, the Centre for Women's Studies in Granada, Spain, and with researchers on women's literature associated with the Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina Hispánica (AILCFH) in the United States.
An international symposium has been held during the project time, "North and South: Geographical and Cultural Perspectives on European Modernity", financed primarily by the Swedish Research Council and Northern Studies at Umeå University. The results of the project have also been presented to a general public on several occasions, for example to language teachers in Umeå, at Café Station in Umeå and at Kulturkontakt Nord in Helsinki.
Publications:
Lindholm, Elena. ”Perspectivismo republicano en Mis viajes por Europa de Carmen de Burgos” Cuaderno Internacional de Estudios Humanísticos y Literatura (CIEHL), ”Espejos y espejismos: la mirada femenina como tema literario y artístico lusohispano”, tematiskt nummer, 2015 (refereegranskad, antagen för publicering).
Lindholm, Elena. ” The Valkyrie in a Bikini: The Nordic Woman as Progressive Media Icon in Spain” Communicating the North. Media Structures and Images in the Making of the Nordic Region, red. Jonas Harvard & Peter Stadius, The Nordic Experience 2. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2013, sid. 197-218 (refereegranskad).
Lindholm, Elena. ”Amor materno y cuerpo social: los ecos de Ellen Key en Quiero vivir mi vida de Carmen de Burgos” Letras femeninas, vol. 29, nr. 2, 2013 (refereegranskad).
Lindholm, Elena. ”La modernidad en otra parte. La mirada de Carmen de Burgos sobre Escandinavia” Traslaciones, red. Margarita M. Birriel Salcedo & Lorena Saletti. Granada: Instituto de Estudios de la Mujer, 2014 (under utgivning).
Lindholm, Elena. "Las fronteras de Europa –los confines de la feminidad: la mujer viajera en El Perseguidor de Carmen de Burgos" (manuskript till bokapitel under utarbetande)