Espa a vista desde dentro y desde fuera. Una aproximación sociohistórica y cultural a los discursos de identidad nacional

Taking Althusser’s concept of ideology as well as Foucault’s discourse theory as departure points, this article offers a socio-historical approach to the “imagined community” which is Spain. In order to do so,(1) it will describe and present the complex national identity feelings in contemporary Spain within their socio-historical context; this contextualisation will be informed by the thesis that a previous, embryonic identity already existed, and comparisons will be made with other European countries; (2) the article will analyse the representation of Spanish and Spanishness by one of its ‘constitutive outsides’ or ‘significant others’, namely the British imagined community; and (3) an introduction will be provided to the way members of the Spanish imagined community see themselves through a brief analysis of self-representation within the Spanish imagi/Nation. This will involve references to representative examples of contemporary Spanish popular culture, which will also be historically contextualised. The conclusions reached both show and account for the bipolarity of current identity discourses in Spain, which either present attachment to Spain or Spanishness as a direct attack against the cultural and national diversity that Spain is undoubtedly home to, or else present attachment to the periphery as a direct attack against (a Castilian-based notion) of Spain and Spanishness.