Gerald Brenan- hispanophile or hispanophobe? A critical re-reading of the Face of Spain?

Abstract

Este artículo pretende analizar los motivos de la tergiversación de la obra de Gerald Brenan en España mediante una relectura detallada de The Face of Spain. Aunque Brenan se suele considerar el hispanista anglosajón más prestigioso del siglo veinte, creemos que esta construcción de su identidad en los círculos literarios y políticos en España se ha basado con frecuencia en una lectura acrítica o incluso inexistente de su obra original en inglés.

This article seeks to analyze the reasons for the misrepresentation of Gerald Brenan s work in Spain through a detailed re-reading of The Face of Spain. Although Brenan is generally held to be the most prestigious Anglo-American Hispanist of the twentieth century, it is the contention of the present article that this construction of his literary identity in Spanish literary and political circles has been based on a frequently acritical or even non-existent reading of his original work in English.