Between intimacy and enmity: Spain and the Philippines post-Suez. (1st October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chang, Julia
• Is Part Of: Journal of Spanish cultural studies. Volume 17:Number 4(2016)
• Page Start: 305
• Page End: 322
• Publication Date: 2016-10-01
• Subjects: Intimacy -- Suez Canal -- Philippines -- Emilia Pardo Bazán -- Juan Luna; Spain -- Civilization -- Periodicals; Spain -- Intellectual life -- Periodicals; Spain -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; Popular culture -- Spain -- History -- Periodicals; 946.005
• DOI: 10.1080/14636204.2016.1240884
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1463-6204

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This essay explores the Philippines's geopolitical orientation vis-à-vis late nineteenth-century Spain amid nation-building efforts and changing maritime infrastructure. The period in question represents a turning point for Spain's transpacific empire, not only because of the emergent political discourse on nationhood, but also because, following the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, state actors and intellectuals alike began to experience and engage with the once-remote colony differently. I argue that the Suez Canal, which profoundly changed the temporal-spatial contours of empire, prompted writers, artists and statesmen on both sides of the Pacific to imagine empire through the trope of intimacy.