Spanish/Portuguese / Interdisciplinary Humanities

In Person Only: The session will be held fully in person at the hotel. No remote presentations will be included.

David George (Bates College)

This panel explores the reciprocal relationship between Benito Pérez Galdós and the intellectual, literary, and sociopolitical movements that defined European culture during his era and shaped discourses of European identity from the nineteenth through the twenty-first centuries. By examining Galdós from an interdisciplinary, European studies perspective, we seek to move beyond traditional national frameworks and trans-Atlantic approaches that have historically dominated North American scholarship, generating fresh understandings of the Spanish realist within the broader European intellectual landscape while illuminating the relevance of his work to contemporary cultural discourses. We examine two critical dimensions: how Galdós engaged with Europe as a potential source of regeneration for Spain and how his distinctly Spanish perspective might serve as a source of regeneration for European cultural values in our current era.

We invite paper proposals that reflect upon the conference theme of "(Re)generation," which might address, among other possibilities: Galdós's engagement with European literary movements; representations of Europe in his works; his reception across European traditions; comparative analyses with European contemporaries; his response to political and philosophical currents; the role of translation in his European connections; and his vision of Spain-within-Europe as it relates to our globalized age.

This panel examines the reciprocal relationship between Benito Pérez Galdós and European intellectual, literary, and sociopolitical movements from the nineteenth century to the present. By exploring both how Galdós engaged with Europe as a source of regeneration for Spain and how his Spanish perspective might regenerate contemporary European cultural values, we seek to move beyond traditional national frameworks toward a refreshed understanding of the novelist's significance across borders.