The orientalization of Epain through literary and musical works (XVIII-XX centuries)

Abstract

Each word, each figurative expression of our language is the fruit of a long accumulative process of knowledge that forms part of our encyclopaedic knowledge of the world, which allows us to interpret the discursive reality of each moment. This cultural baggage made up of stories influences how the Self interacts with its environment and interprets Others, and how it ends up shaping its identity. This article seeks to show how a form of elaboration of colonial narratives can occur through artistic productions and how even within the same culture - such as the Spanish one - we can find subcultures that are essentialised by being subjected to the colonial discourse of their reality. With this objective in mind and based on the concepts of orientalism, imbricated orientalism and auto-orientalism, we will make a chronological analysis of the orientalist discourse of European and Spanish artistic productions from the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century in order to respond to our hypothesis. If we can show how the concepts and uses of the past have travelled and have been re-appropriated up to the present day through art, we will be able to show how language is a key weapon in the establishment of power relations.