Medieval Iberia, Essentialist Narratives and Globalization

  • Alejandro García-Sanjuán Universidad de Huelva
Keywords: Middle Ages, Globalization, Essentialist Narratives, Capitalism, Reconquista, Edad Media, Globalización, Narrativas esencialistas, Capitalismo

Abstract

The academic study of the Middle Ages started out over the nineteenth century, in a historical context shaped by the rise of the liberal revolutions and nationalism, as well as the globalization of capitalism as a result of the industrial revolution and colonialism. This context helps understand the strong essentialist bias of the narratives about the medieval period, as clearly revealed by the Spanish case. The new wave of capitalist globalization after 1989 brought about a new rise of essentialist narratives that came hand in hand with the consolidation of increasingly multicultural and multiethnic environment in the most advances societies. This contradiction stands as a stark challenge for medieval studies in the years to come.

El estudio académico de la Edad Media se inició a lo largo del siglo XIX, en un contexto histórico marcado por el auge de las revoluciones liberales y el nacionalismo, así como por la globalización del capitalismo como resultado de la revolución industrial y el colonialismo. Este contexto ayuda a comprender el fuerte sesgo esencialista de las narraciones sobre el período medieval, como lo revela claramente el caso español. La nueva ola de globalización capitalista posterior a 1989 trajo consigo un nuevo auge de narrativas esencialistas que vino de la mano de la consolidación de un entorno cada vez más multicultural y multiétnico en las sociedades más avanzadas. Esta contradicción representa un gran desafío para los estudios medievales en los años venideros.

Author Biography

Alejandro García-Sanjuán, Universidad de Huelva

Alejandro García-Sanjuán is currently Professor of Medieval History at the University of Huelva (Spain). His main field of research is Medieval Iberia, with a special focus on al-Andalus. His featured publications include Till God Inherits the Earth. Islamic Pious Endowments in al-Andalus (9th-15th century) (Brill, 2007), and La conquista islámica de la península ibérica y la tergiversación del pasado: del catastrofismo al negacionismo (Marcial Pons, 2019, 2nd ed.), Over the last few years he has worked extensively on the reception of Islamic Iberia in modern Spanish culture and scholarship and the influence of nationalism in shaping popular myths and prejudices about the past, as mirrored in notions such as Reconquista and “Muslim Spain”.

Published
2022-12-31
Section
RiMe 11/I n.s. (December 2022). Special Issue