Through the analysis of artistic and written artifacts, this dissertation attempts to reflect upon the cultural and political conditions that conjoin to constitute a highly unstable "Galizan identity". The dissertation will begin by reading how a graphic work by the single most central figure in modern Galizan nationalism managed to convey such unstable identity. It will then go on to assess how culture in general, and literary production in particular might be used to mobilize the social elements that would liberate a potential Galizan identity/nation, according to the terms of a contemporary Galizan manifesto-cum-declaration and under the conditions which have historically produced the cultural, social and political map of the Iberian Peninsula. The special situation of Galiza comes across, thus, as perhaps the most complex identitarian conflict of those locked up by the Spanish Kingdom. Amongst all the potential indicators of a "Galizan identity", language retains a hegemonic position (of which the artifacts under study here are perfect paradigms) at the same time that it has become the privileged territory for the confrontation of different national projects. The combination of this cultural constituent factor with other historic elements allows for the categorization of Galiza as an enclave in an unequal dialectical relationship. This characterization depends, however, upon the privileged status given to the Nation-State in Modernity as the site of political sovereignty. Assuming as much, the artifacts analysed in this dissertation can only present Galiza as being either a nation's "amputated/occupied segment" or a "forbidden" nation (without "its own Nation-State"). Nevertheless, in the Global Era, the "suspended" condition of Galizan identity may become one of the aporetic paradigms of subjectivity at the beginning of the new century: Galizans can and cannot be (an)other thing. Their incompleteness is, thus, not only the very condition of their foreignness to the two Nation-States of the Iberian Peninsula but, above all, to the modern political construct that the Nation-State is.

La presente Tesis Doctoral La Exposicion Iberoamericana (EIA) de Sevilla en contexto tiene como hilo conductor la arquitectura como manifestacion cultural de su epoca. De esta manera, el analisis arquitectonico de la EIA pondra de manifiesto, en primer lugar, la influencia de las Exposiciones Universales ensayadas durante el siglo XIX. Estos certamenes demostraron su capacidad de sintesis al encapsular los avances de cada paí­s, sin olvidar la plasmacion de la identidad nacional a traves de la arquitectura de sus pabellones. La EIA se basara en este modelo para sintetizar no ya los avances tecnologicos o coloniales de Espana y Latinoamerica, sino, por el contrario, las relaciones existentes entre ambas tras las independencias. En segundo lugar, y a traves del analisis de los pabellones de las distintas naciones sera posible discernir que imagen querian mostrar al otro, a Espana, a las otras republicas latinoamericanas, con su participacion en la EIA. La Plaza de America a traves de los estilos Neogotico, Neomudejar y Neoplateresco pondra de manifiesto la influencia de la corriente conservadora panhispanista, que proponia restablecer una suerte de neoimperialismo sobre las excolonias espanolas. Frente a este afan de superioridad cabe destacar como la mayoria de las republicas latinoamericanas prefirieron condensar su identidad en pabellones neobarrocos, en los que la arquitectura se relaciona con la corriente liberal del Panhispanoamericanismo. El mejor ejemplo de esta corriente esta representado en el pabellon de Argentina. Mexico, por su parte, pondra la nota discordante al establecer, con la arquitectura de su pabellon Neoindigena, la independencia total de Espana, y la relevancia de las culturas indigenas a la hora de conformar su identidad nacional. Disenado por Amabilis durante el gobierno de Calles, este pabellon esta inmerso en la corriente del Indigenismo que, a pesar de haberse desarrollado en toda America Latina, tuvo especial pujanza en Mexico. Por ultimo, en la arquitectura de la Plaza de Espana sera posible descubrir, en la eleccion de los estilos arquitectonicos, la necesidad de repensar una nueva identidad para Espana, que habia dejado de ser un imperio para convertirse en una nacion europea de segunda fila. De esta manera, en tercer y ultimo lugar, al analizar los pabellones de la EIA, sera posible comprender las distintas motivaciones que llevaron a los paises participantes a erigir un pabellon permanente en la capital hispalense: bien para fomentar las relaciones entre las naciones hispanas en aras de ser mas fuertes frente al imperialismo de los Estados Unidos; para redescubrir una identidad comun basada en la raza o en la lengua; para fortalecer las relaciones comerciales; o simplemente con la intencion de utilizar la arquitectura como propaganda politica, economica, o incluso turí­stica.

This thesis examines the importance of women in political and cultural life at the Spanish court through the case of Teresa Valle, spiritual counsellor of Olivares, the favourite of King Philip IV (1621–1643). Scholars have assumed that women in Golden Age Spain played only a minor role in high Baroque politics and culture; my research demonstrates this to be a partial and insufficient view. Through an analysis of diverse primary sources such as letters, literary writings, and Inquisition records I show how relations between noblemen and religious women formed a key aspect of Baroque patronage and exchange, forming an essential tool of publicity and power for the former, and a way of access to the literary domain for the latter. Teresa Valle founded a convent in Madrid with the help of her patrons. The fame as visionary achieved by her aroused the wrath of some of the nuns of her convent, who denounce her to the Holy Office. She was condemned and the enemy factions of her powerful friends used the scandal to destruct their public image. In order to defence her honour and the moral integrity of her patrons Teresa addressed three treatises to the inquisitors and one confessional writing to the King. At the heart of the thesis there is a study of the writings that Teresa produced during this period, revealing her emerging literary identity, which I tried to elucidate and analyse. The nun´s trip into literature also allows me to define new paths of understanding female writing in Golden Age Spain and clarify the discursive strategies that religious women negotiated.

This thesis covers the Norman and Anglo-Norman contribution to the Iberian Reconquista from the early eleventh to the mid-thirteenth centuries. It explores the involvement of these groups as part of the changing ideas of Holy War and their transformation as result of the First Crusade. It shows that although the Reconquista was the result of important political and economic factors within the Iberian realms, the theological aura that the papacy started placing on this conflict was a powerful motivator increasing the interest of the Normans and later Anglo-Normans, especially when coincidental with the general call for crusade in western Europe that resulted in the large expeditions that are known to us as the crusades. To cover these areas, this work is divided in four main sections: the first, Chapter II, pursues chronologically the careers of individual members of the Norman nobility such as Roger of Tosny, Robert Crispin and Robert Burdet as they became involved. It also addresses the influence that institutions like Cluny and the papacy might have had in the creation of the idea of the Reconquista in the minds of those involved. The second section, Chapter III explores the brief decline of the Norman interest in the peninsula as a result of the Norman conquest of England and the First Crusade. It also explores the revitalization of the Norman interest in the peninsular conflict with the careers of Rotrou of Perche and Robert Burdet. Chapter IV, addresses the large contribution of the Anglo-Normans as part of the Second Crusade and their motivations and the impact of their arrival on the Iberian realms. Chapter V explores the participation of the lower aristocracy and merchants from the mid-twelfth century onwards in the coastal actions on both the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of Iberia, showing the impact that these actions had in the Reconquista. Finally, Chapter VI explores how the changing political circumstances in Iberia and the Anglo-Norman domains helped to increase awareness during the rise of the Angevin empire and the newly found diplomatic relations between the two regions. However, it also shows that although by the thirteenth century the Reconquista was perceived as a legitimate area of crusading, the political and economic circumstances on the peninsula as well as of the English Crown had important repercussions for the drastic decline in the number of participants.

This thesis will examine literary representations of the city of Madrid from the late sixteenth to seventeenth century, with a specific focus on the period of 1600-­‐1650. My analysis incorporates a multi-­‐genre approach that will include historiography, ephemeral text, festival books, poetry, entremés and prose fiction in order to provide the widest consideration of early modern Madrid through the literature it produced. Several scholars of Golden Age Madrid, such as Garcia Santo-­Tomás, Elliott, and Romero-­Díaz, have highlighted the need to move away from the static Maravallian dichotomy of power and resistance by which the Baroque has been characterised, and towards an approach that instead examines it from a point of view of its dynamism. The literature of early modern Madrid presents a conflictive image of both attraction and repugnance. On the one hand, there is an ‘official’ discourse of the city that looks to the court as its frame of reference, representing a powerful court capital. However, on the other hand, the same literature projects an ‘unofficial’ discourse, a dystopian nightmare where people starved to death in the streets, alienated and alone. The literature of early modern Madrid illustrates this crisis of representation between the two ‘worlds’ of the city that simultaneously narrate a city of extremes. This thesis will analyse the way in which this dual image of the city, its culture and the experience of living in it is produced with such a high degree of intensity within this period of urban development. It will also consider how the experience of the city is revealed through the literature it produced, demonstrating how representations of the city transcend concepts of power and marginalisation.

This thesis explores the making of a cultural and political imagination of Catalonia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in order to re-think the nature of nationalism in modern Europe. Although in some respects the Catalan story follows some well-known patterns of national identity construction, it is distinctive in others. Its spatial dynamics were rather particular, because they traverse traditional divides between regionalism and nationalism. The three main sections of the thesis are devoted to three spatial tiers of identity construction – the city, the state, and Europe – and draw on the projects of Josep Puig i Cadafalch (1867-1956), famous Catalan politician, man of letters, architect, art historian, and president of the proto-autonomous Catalan government between 1917 and 1923. Puig’s personal archive, made available to researchers for the first time in 2006, allows me to cast fresh light on the interplay between culture and politics in this seminal historical moment. Part 1 examines the influence of the visual culture of the 1880s on Puig’s contributions to the remaking of a Barcelona as the capital of a new Catalonia, and the less explored channels for the dissemination of national narratives and imaginaries. Part 2 shows that, in Puig’s design for the 1929 International Exposition, Catalan identity was conveyed not through the content of the exhibition – this was devoted to Spain – but through the way in which that knowledge of Spain was organised and displayed. Along a similar line, it also shows that the seemingly ‘Castilian’ forms of architecture chosen by Puig for the event also entail a ‘Catalan’ gaze, on the whole of Spain. Part 3 discusses the role of academic research in forming national identities, and more particularly, the way in which ‘national’ historiographical discourses may be constructed ‘transnationally’. All three parts consider Puig’s work as an urban planner, exhibition designer, politician, architect, and art historian, and thus engage diverse disciplines and historical debates, from the role of visual culture in shaping urban space to the interplay between Universal Expositions and vernacular architecture, as well as the political use of academic research and the interplay between transnational academic networks and nationalistic history writing.

Among the Roman foundations in modern Catalonia was the colonia of Barcino, which, unlike several of its neighbours, had no local native predecessor. The growth of these cities was slow, and an air of mediocrity shrouds them all, save Tarraco. With the decline of nearby communities in the third century, the significance of Barcino increased. New defences and economic activity, supplemented by the presence of civil and ecclesiastical powers in the Visigothic period, ensured the survival of urban life, although a tendency to contraction around the religious centre is apparent in the topography of the 6th. century, marking the beginning of the transition to the medieval plan. In the following centuries the fortress function was foremost: only from the mid tenth century can changes be detected, with the appearance of suburbs and a 'Port'. Braked by Almansur's raid, the impetus of growth was soon recovered. The development of the city during the succeeding two centuries can be traced from nearly a thousand documents, mainly unpublished. In this period, Barcelona's population increased ten-fold, with corresponding alterations to the townscape, while details of topography which have survived until the present day were often determined in this period. Three main zones are detectable: the adapted pattern of Antiquity within the defences, the spontaneous growth of the inner suburbs, while those of c.1080 onwards contain elements of planning. By 1200, open land, once commonplace, had disappeared and the medieval city of narrow streets and tightly packed houses had been formed. The reasons behind this growth are diverse. Historical circumstances and the precedents of the Visigothic period played some part. Equally significant were the decline of Barcelona's neighbours and the maintained agricultural strength of its plain. Finally, Barcelona formed a focal point not only for this territorium, and a wider hinterland, but also for the emergent Catalonia.

In the 1930s and 1940s, different social welfare models were at the disposal of policy-makers of non-democratic countries. However, although social security models were being debated and advocated by experts and policy-makers, the non-democratic regimes of Latin America and Southern Europe only set up limited social insurance schemes aimed at protecting particular groups of people, resulting in very fragmented management systems. Neither the welfare state literature, nor the research on non-democratic regimes, have attempted to explain why non-democratic regimes failed to set up comprehensive social security systems. Drawing on so-far unknown primary sources, this thesis examines the development of Social Insurance Schemes in Franco's Spain between 1936 and 1950. It studies the policy processes that led to the passing of each social insurance scheme and the evolution of the institution in charge of the social insurance system, the Instituto Nacional de Prevision (INP). By using a framework for the analysis of the policy-making process in non-democratic regimes, this thesis will show how political institutions of the Francoist regime shaped the resources of those actors (mainly Falangists and Social Catholics) involved in the power struggle for the control of the social insurance system. These institutions were: 1) the ministerial decrees and orders as the methods of passing legislation, 2) the bypassing of the Council of Ministers, 3) the absence of regulations within the Ministry of Labour, 4) the marginalisation of the Council of State and 5) the lack of formal procedures to resolve jurisdictional conflicts, and 6) the possibility ministers had to pass regulations. These permitted Falangist Labour Minister Girón de Velasco to manoeuvre to achieve Falange's goals at the time the party was being put at the service of the state. The National Office of Syndicates competed with the INP for control of the social insurance system. The result was a highly complex and fragmented system of overlapping schemes provided by several organisations rather than a comprehensive social insurance scheme.