History and identity: the social languages of romantic feminism in Spain (1844-1846)

Abstract

This essay proposes a reflection on the relationship between feminist history and gender identities formation; a reflection which is indissolubly linked to debates around the contributions of the new cultural history of the last thirty years. To do so it focuses on the years between 1844 and 1846, when the work of the most renown romantic women writers, led by Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda and Carolina Coronado, was channelled from the press associated with intellectual and political groups of the wide democratic spectrum. With it, also the voices of a feminism in the making conceived for the ladies of the upper classes were projected. The cacophonic elaboration of a Liberal, romantic and respectable discourse was a powerful moment for the construction of some of the most lasting imaginaries of Spanish feminism.