Exoticism, Ethnocentrism, and Englishness in Popular Romance Fiction: Constructing the European Other

In the case of Spain, its association with the exotic association with the exotic features prominently in romance novels by mid‐twentieth‐century British authors, particularly in the decades between the 1950s and 1970s. Some frequent stereotypes have included the siesta, the fiesta, the flamenco, an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of popular culture Vol. 51; no. 4; pp. 940 - 955
Main Author Pérez‐Gil, María del Mar
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.08.2018
Subjects
20th century
Affirmation
Beliefs
British culture
Bullfighting
Discourses
Dominance
English language
Ethnocentrism
European culture
Exoticism
Fiction
Idealization
Imagery
Islands
Literary devices
National identity
Novels
Otherness
Romances
Spanish culture
Stereotypes
Vehicles
Canary Islands
Spain
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Summary:In the case of Spain, its association with the exotic association with the exotic features prominently in romance novels by mid‐twentieth‐century British authors, particularly in the decades between the 1950s and 1970s. Some frequent stereotypes have included the siesta, the fiesta, the flamenco, and bullfighting. Behind these representations lurks a vision of the exotic grounded in discourses of difference and otherness based on an oversimplified conception of Spain. In these novels, the exotic operates as a locus of scenic idealization and as a site for the lingering stereotypification of the Other. Authors rely on commonplace assumptions and expectations when producing the image of the exotic in topographical and cultural terms, and the same holds true for the construction of the nation. For example, in two novels that combine the tropical island trope with national stereotypification—Catherine Airlie's Red Lotus (1968) and Jane Arbor's Golden Apple Island (1967)2—the process of othering occurs through the projection of preconceived images that originate in the stereotyped beliefs that the English hold about the Spaniards. Airlie and Arbor make use of paradisal imagery to describe the Canary Islands, where both novels are set. Their recourse to ethnonational clichés about the local culture allows for a reading of these novels as vehicles for the affirmation of affirmation of Englishness and English national superiority.
ISSN:0022-3840
1540-5931
DOI:10.1111/jpcu.12710