Spanish Orientalism: Washington Irving and the Romance of the Moors

353 Pages·2017·6.85 MB·English

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History Dissertations Department of History
11-26-2007
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Michael S. Stevens
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Stevens, Michael S., "Spanish Orientalism: Washington Irving and the Romance of the Moors."
Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2007.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/1059650
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SPANISH ORIENTALISM:
WASHINGTON IRVING AND THE ROMANCE OF THE MOORS

by

MICHAEL STEVENS

Under the Direction of Denise Davidson

ABSTRACT

Edward Said’s description of Orientalism as a constitutive element of the modern
West is one of the enduring concepts of cultural history. The Orientalism thesis begins
with the observation that in the 19th century Westerners began describing the "Orient,"
particularly the Middle East and India, as a place that was once gloriously civilized but
had declined under the influence of incompetent Islamic governments. This construction
was then employed to justify Western Imperialism and the expansion of Christianity into
Asia.
This dissertation examines a case of Orientalism with a twist. Between 1775 and
1830 a group of Anglophone writers and artists depicted Spain as a state with a cultural
trajectory similar to that described by the Orientalists. But in the Spanish case, the
glorious past was the age of the Islamic Moors who had ruled parts of the Iberian
Peninsula from 700 until 1492, while the current Christian rulers were the backwards and
religiously intolerant impediments to progress. Thus the case of Spanish Orientalism
employs an argument structurally identical to Said’s Orientalism, with the role of the
Christians and Muslims reversed.
In examining this phenomenon, I focus on three particular issues. The first is the
representation of the Moors in early modern European popular culture. I argue that these
earlier traditions use the Moors as an emblematic manifestation of oppositionality to the
centralizing state and elite authority. The romantics found in the Moors a symbol
comparable to such other proto-Europeans as the Celts and the Goths, worthy
predecessors to the warlike, chivalric, and liberty-loving modern Europeans. The second
is the political context of Spanish Orientalism. Like “classical” Orientalism, Spanish
Orientalism had a clear political payoff. Its articulators meant to show that the Spanish
government was an unworthy steward of its rapidly disintegrating empire, thus Spanish
Orientalism is closely associated with attempts to assert Anglophone authority in the
Caribbean. Third, I examine in detail the work of the author most clearly associated with
Spanish Orientalism, Washington Irving. In the four books he wrote while in Spain
during the 1820s, Irving became the individual most responsible for reframing the long
representational tradition of the Moors into a modern idiom and bringing it to a mass
audience.

INDEX WORDS: Orientalism, Washington Irving, Alexander Hill Everett, Spanish-
American diplomatic relations, Romanticism, The Moors, Early
modern popular culture
SPANISH ORIENTALISM:

WASHINGTON IRVING AND THE ROMANCE OF THE MOORS

by

MICHAEL S. STEVENS

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy
In the College of Arts and Sciences
Georgia State University

2007
Copyright by
Michael Stanley Stevens
2007
SPANISH ORIENTALISM:

WASHINGTON IRVING AND THE ROMANCE OF THE MOORS

by

MICHAEL S. STEVENS

Major Professor: Denise Davidson
Committee: Maria Gindhart
David McCreery
Christine Skwiot

Electronic Version Approved:

Office of Graduate Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Georgia State University
December 2007
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES v

ABBREVIATIONS vii

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS viii

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER

1 The Moors and Spain in Medieval and Early Modern European 18
Culture

Figures for Chapter 1 51

2 Spanish Orientalism: Anglophone Representation of Moorish 59
Spain 1775-1818

Figures for Chapter 2 102

3 Alexander Hill Everett, Diplomat and Scholar 116

4 Everett in Spain: Diplomacy and Romantic Culture 147

5 The Isle of the Manhattoes: Knickerbocker Village or Yankee El 187
Dorado?

6 Washington Irving, A Transatlantic Writer 225

7 Irving in Spain 257

Figures for Chapter 7 297

CONCLUSION 302

BIBLIOGRAPHY 307
v

List of Figures

Figures from Chapter 1
Figure 1. Il Capitano 51
Figure 2. Capitan Matamoros 51
Figure 3. Dance of Saint Sebastian; Hobby Horses 52
Figure 4. Jacques Callot, Two Pantaloons 53
Figure 5. Jacques Callot, Frontispiece, Sfessania 54
Figure 6. Jacques Callot, Sfessania 54
Figure 7. Jacques Callot, Sfessania 55
Figure 8. Anonymous Painting after Sfessania 56
Figure 9. Jacques Callot, War of Love 57
Figure 10. Jacques Callot, War of Love 58

Figures from Chapter 2

Figure 11. Diego Velazquez, Water-Seller 101
Figure 12. Henry Swinburne, Court of the Lions 102
Figure 13. Henry Swinburne, Gates of the Alhambra 103
Figure 14. James Cavanah Murphy, The Alhambra 104
Figure 15. James Cavanah Murphy, Plan of Batalha 105
Figure 16. James Cavanah Murphy, West Elevation of Batalha 106
Figure 17. Jose de Hermosillo, Lion Fountain 107
Figure 18. James Cavanah Murphy, Hall of the Baths 108
Figure 19. View of Arcade 109
Figure 20. Henry Swinburne, Great Bath 109
Figure 21. James Cavanah Murphy, Hall of the Ambassadors 110
Figure 22. James Cavanah Murphy, Court and Lion Fountain 111
Figure 23. View of Lion Fountain 112
Figure 24. James Cavanah Murphy, Scene from a Painting 113
Figure 25. View of Painting 113
Figure 26. James Cavanah Murphy, Marble Basin 114
Figure 27. View of Marble Basin 114
Figure 28. View of Marble Basin 114
vi
Images from Chapter 7

Figure 29. David Wilkie, Benvenuto Cellini 296
Figure 30. David Wilkie, Distraining for Rent 297
Figure 31. David Wilkie, Washington Irving in the Archives 298
Figure 32. David Wilkie, Maid of Saragossa 299
Figure 33. David Wilkie, Columbus at La Rabida 300
vii

Abbreviations

AHEP Alexander Hill Everett Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society. Boston.

CWWI Irving, Washington. The Complete Works of Washington Irving. Ed. Ralph M.
Aderman, Herbert L. Kleinfield, and Jennifer S. Banks. 28 vols. Boston:
Twayne, 1979.

PHC Clay, Henry. The Papers of Henry Clay. Ed. James F. Hopkins. University Press
of Kentucky, 1972.

PMI Irving, Pierre M. The Life and Letters of Washington Irving. 4 Volumes. New
York: Putnam, 1864.

STW Williams, Stanley T. The Life of Washington Irving. 2 Volumes. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1935.