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On the Discoursive Construction of the Spanish Hero in Intercultural Romances

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International Handbook of Love

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Abstract

This chapter explores the different strategies employed for the construction of the Spanish identity of male protagonists in a sample of romances published between 1955 and 2003 by Harlequin/Mills & Boon. Set in a Spanish-speaking area, the Canary Islands, many of these novels narrate the love stories of mixed couples, invariably a hero of Spanish origin and an English-speaking heroine. After a brief review of the romantic idea of love in popular culture and the concepts of identity and national character, the perceptions of Spaniards and the image of Spain throughout history are examined. Then the chapter focuses on the multiple facets of the hero’s Spanishness, including references to his physical features, personality and behaviour. His characterization also draws from a number of literary and historical figures, which apparently work as inspirational sources. The role of language is also highlighted, since the texts tend to be interspersed with Spanish terms and expressions. All together, these elements seem to effectively contribute to the discoursive construction of the romantic Spanish hero.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The sample of 15 romances belongs to the wider corpus compiled for Research Project FFI2014–53962-P, funded by the Spanish government. This grant is hereby gratefully acknowledged.

  2. 2.

    Airlie (1958) is the only exception: the hero is a Briton relatively Spanishized after being long established in the Canaries, where he has close social bonds. Hispanicisms and interesting comments on Spanish character abound, which justifies its inclusion as a primary source.

  3. 3.

    They are also useful to explore topics such as paradise discourse, language contact, environmental awareness and political attitudes (González-Cruz, 2015, 2017a, forthcoming; Vivanco, 2016).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Modern Languages, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain

    María-Isabel González-Cruz

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  1. María-Isabel González-Cruz
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Correspondence to María-Isabel González-Cruz .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Claude-Hélène Mayer

  2. Institut für therapeutische Kommunikation und Sprachgebrauch, Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany

    Claude-Hélène Mayer

  3. Global Institute for Transcultural Research, Römerberg, Germany

    Elisabeth Vanderheiden

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González-Cruz, MI. (2021). On the Discoursive Construction of the Spanish Hero in Intercultural Romances. In: Mayer, CH., Vanderheiden, E. (eds) International Handbook of Love. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45996-3_40

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