El oriente interiorla transculturalidad del mito de al-Andalus en la literatura hispana del siglo XX

Abstract

The myth of al-Andalus, since the late nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century, has been crucial in the construction of identity discourses in Hispanic literature and in the definition of otherness. This protean nature of the myth transcends the temporal and physical limits of the history of Spanish Islam, gestating a geo-psychic homeland of liquid borders. In the 19th century, there is a particular use of the myth of al-Andalus with the artistic production on the African War of 1859, where the visual element (photographs, engravings, paintings, caricatures in magazines) plays a crucial role in the conception and appropriation of the Arab otherness, which is opposed to the European exoticist vision. On the other hand, Persia, with its peripheral Mediterranean nature and its complex relationship with the Arab world, will become one of the axial points in the myth of al-Andalus, thanks to several translations. On the other hand, Blas Infante, at the beginning of the 20th century, managed the glorious Hispanic-Arabic past in the construction of Andalusian nationalism, giving a political dimension to the myth of Al-Andalus. We will also explore how the use of the Islamic Arab element in the work of Argentinean J.L. Borges not only responds to the canons of exoticist romanticism, but there is also an influence of the Sevillian Cansinos Assens, who translated the Koran, One Thousands and One Nights, and the Anthology of Persian Poets into Spanish in the mid-20th century. The myth of al-Andalus, beyond stereotyped excluding identity discourses, opens a dialogue from South to South and is creating fertile spaces for communication.