Spain Is (Still) Different

Spain Is (Still) Different addresses both theoretical perspectives on the study of tourism in Spain and specific cases of the cultural impact of travel and tourism on Spanish culture in the late eighteenth to early twenty-first centuries. With contributions from experts in leisure and culture studies, literature, film, and art historians from Spain, the UK, and the U.S., this innovative multi-disciplinary volume introduces readers to methodological and practical issues concerning the cultural function of tourism in Spain. The main body of contributions comes from the area of cultural studies. In the introduction, Afinoguénova and Martí-Olivella provide a comprehensive overview of the problematic of tourism in Spain and of diverse approaches to the study of tourism in its relation to Spanish culture. Unlike other collections on tourism studies, this book is aimed to bridge the gap between the social sciences and the humanities. It is structured to provide an example of how experts in different fields can use each other's work in order to achieve a multi-faceted understanding of the phenomenon of tourism and its implications.

This is an innovative and enlightening volume that offers highly valuable insights on the crucial role played by the discourses and practices of tourism in the construction of modern Spanish identity. Its focus and approach is on the cutting edge area of Hispanic cultural studies. The essays included provide a careful examination of the contexts and political uses of tourism in the collective self-imagining of the nation. It will be an invaluable tool for scholars and students interested in the political and cultural ramifications of tourism in a global context., Spain is (Still) Different provides several essays on film that go beyond tourism to raise questions about Spanish reflections and identities as well., Spanish exceptionality is a centuries-old topic, but the ideology of Spanish difference as it pertains both to Spain’s internal and external identity has never received a more thoroughgoing critical examination as in these intelligent and lucid essays. As a group they set new standards for debates concerning the discursive relationship between Spain’s tourist industry, economic structures, and cultural production and identity in the modern era.

Eugenia Afinoguénova is assistant professor of Spanish at Marquette University. Jaume Martí-Olivella is associate professor of Hispanic cultural studies at the University of New Hampshire.