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José de Letamendi y Manjarrés (1828–1897) was one of the most renowned intellectual figures in nineteenth-century Spain. Although he served as Professor of Anatomy in Barcelona, and then as Professor of General Pathology in Madrid, his interests and publications varied widely and included topics ranging from criminality, economics, linguistics and sociology, to art, music, philosophy and poetry. Critics since the nineteenth century have both celebrated and condemned Letamendi's work, and there is considerable misunderstanding surrounding its importance, particularly when it comes to those areas that were central to his thinking such as modernity, progress, corporeality, holism and social degeneration. This article sheds new light on the relevance of Letamendi's socio-cultural theory in its nineteenth-century Spanish/European context and demonstrates in what respects it offers an innovative analysis of modern progress in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El propósito de este ensayo bilingüe y colaborativo formado por muchas voces es destilar lo dinámico, perspicaz y a veces polémico del intercambio de ideas del simposio "Modernidad y vanguardia: Debate desde las perspectivas de los Estados Unidos y España" organizado por Susan Larson y Juan Herrero-Senés el 17 y 18 de julio de 2019 en la Residencia de Estudiantes de Madrid. El encuentro reunió a catorce académicos (siete residentes en España y siete en los Estados Unidos y Gran Bretaña) cuya investigación se basa en una gran variedad de metodologías y tradiciones intelectuales de ambos lados del Atlántico. Este evento fue una oportunidad única para compartir líneas de trabajo, lanzar preguntas sobre los nuevos caminos que ofrecen las teorías recientes y un intento de ofrecer soluciones de forma colectiva a algunos de los problemas más apremiantes que afrontamos los investigadores, profesores y estudiantes que nos dedicamos a un campo siempre en evolución. Después de que los co-organizadores planteen cuáles eran las ideas más importantes del encuentro, este ensayo termina con intervenciones breves de los participantes en los diálogos: Andrew A. Anderson, Nuria Capdevila-Argüelles, Nicolás Fernández-Medina, Leslie J. Harkema, Juan Herrero-Senés, Juli Highfill, Susan Larson, Abelardo Linares, José-Carlos Mainer, Domingo Ródenas de Moya, Nil M. Santiáñez, Renée M. Silverman, y Andrés Soria Olmedo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this bilingual, collaborative, many-voiced essay is to distill the dynamic, insightful and at times polemical exchange of ideas that took place during the "Modernity and the Avant-Garde in Spain: A Debate from the Perspectives of the United States and Spain" symposium organized by Susan Larson and Juan Herrero-Senés on July 17 and 18, 2019 in the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid. The gathering brought together 14 scholars (seven based in Spain and the rest in the United States and Great Britain) whose research stems from a wide variety of methodologies and intellectual traditions. This encounter was a unique opportunity to engage directly with each other's work, to answer key questions about promising theoretical approaches and to share strategies to collectively solve some of the most pressing problems that are commonly faced by researchers and students in this rapidly-changing field. After the co-authors consider some of the most important ideas that came out of the encounter, this essay ends with the brief interventions of the participants in the dialogues: Andrew A. Anderson, Nuria Capdevila-Argüelles, Nicolás Fernández-Medina, Leslie J. Harkema, Juan Herrero-Senés, Juli Highfill, Susan Larson, Abelardo Linares, José-Carlos Mainer, Domingo Ródenas de Moya, Nil Santiáñez, Renée M. Silverman, and Andrés Soria Olmedo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Readers return once and again to Camilo José Cela's innovative novel La colmena (1951) and note its gritty and unapologetic approach to the problem of existence. This approach, however, has never been elucidated with any degree of precision, particularly when it comes to the fundamental question of existential freedom that is palpable in the text. In this article I propose to take up the discussion of how La colmena offers an existentialist view on the dialectic of freedom. My argument is that the very concept of freedom and its attendant responsibility as articulated in this early novel can be considered part and parcel of Cela's broader social critique of post-Civil War Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In El hombre de la galería (1926) Ramón Gómez de la Serna provides us with one his most succinct and lucid elaborations on the problematics of urban modernity through the logic of the arcade. He demonstrates, moreover, to what extent themes such as alienation, consumer culture, political utopianism, and existential disintegration play into the modern experience of space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers a literary criticism of the novel "El copo de nieve," by Ángela Grassi. It argues that Grassi's traditional view of a feminine ideal is contradicted within her novel. Topics include materialistic and social atomism, Grassi's opposition to atheism and modernity, and the theistic cosmology present in the novel.

João Cabral de Melo Neto's first diplomatic mission abroad was to Barcelona, Spain, between the years 1947 and 1950. During this period, the young João Cabral came into direct contact with some of the most important Spanish intellectuals of the time, such as Joan Miró, Jorge Guillén, Carles Ribas, Joan Brossa and Antoni Tàpies. This contact was crucial in not only shaping João Cabral's vision of poetry and art, but also the artistic vision of his Spanish counterparts. This article examines the rich artistic and cultural interchange between João Cabral and the Spanish intellectuals during these first years in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]