Why Don Fulgencio Entrambosmares del Alquilón's "Apuntes para un tratado de cocotología" belongs in the Spanish Cultural Studies curriculum - followed by a concise argument to the contrary

Authors

  • Benjamin Fraser Christopher Newport University

Abstract

Cultural Studies as a discipline has taken traditional literary studies to task - quite rightly in fact - for the narrow approach used to define the object oft raditional investigation. Even so, there must be a place for narrative in the Spanish Cultural Studies curriculum. Seeking texts that might suitably fit into the goals of a less traditional syllabus, the present essay advances a novel proposal. Whereas "Apuntes para un tratado de cocotologia" is presented in Miguel de Unamuno 's Amor y pedagogia (1902) as the work of a fictional character named Don Fulgencio Entrambosmares, when extracted from the context of the novel it squares with the key paradigmatic shifts of Cultural Studies -interdiscipinarity, hybridity, post- colonialism, self-reflexivity, and the question of method. Writing with a tone that echoes the self-effacement of Unamuno's work itself, Fraser - I mean the great-great grandson Entrambosmares - scientifically dissects a treatise that may one day become a staple of the discipline... or if not, one recognized to be at least as insightful as it is humorous.

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