Identity and interculturality: Iberism in Portuguese Travel Literature of the second half of the 19th century

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on Iberianist theories and the question of identity as represented and perceived by Portuguese writers of the second half of the 19th century. The narrative of travels to the neighbouring country in the second half of the 19th century is, in our opinion, paradigmatic of the issue of travels, as a cultural practice, but also as a space propitiating a contact with the Other, which crystallizes in the creation of self and hetero-images and in the consolidation of national identity, through the comparative attitude established in contact with the Foreigner. Other authors have already stated that, in Portugal, it is mainly in relation to France and England that the double semantism of the foreign element is forged (BOURDON, 1988:124), images of alterity in relation to which basic attitudes of rejection or dazzle are taken. But if this is true especially in Eça de Queirós and Ramalho Ortigão, the role played by Spain, in this process, should not be underestimated, especially if we take into account the historical and political context of relations both with France and England (the Ultimatum of 1890), and with Spain and the Iberian Question.