A 98-as nemzedék és a spanyol történelem
The Generation of '98 and Spanish History

Summary/Abstract: The so-called generation of '98 emerged in Spain in the wake of the military defeat in the Spanish-American War of 1898. The activities of its members included, among others, the reinterpretation of Spanish history; setting a different interpretation against the self-justifying, pathetic – and as such, false – historical image of the so-called official Spain. The essay analyses the three most significant writings on this issue, i.e. Idearium Español. El porvenir de España by Ángel Ganivet, En torno al casticismo by Miguel de Unamuno, and Defensa de la Hispanidad by Ramiro de Maeztu. The common message of the three writings is that Spain had diverged from the historical road it had been destined to follow, and the catastrophic present is the result of this unfaithfulness. The three authors, however, differ in where they place this divergence in history. According to Ganivet, the country had been ruined, its resources wasted by the global politics of the Hapsburgs on the throne of Spain. Maeztu, on the other hand, associates the change with the ascent of the Bourbons, which brought free European spirituality, enlightenment and liberalism into Spain. Unamuno's analysis has several layers: it postulates a return to a ‘perennial tradition’ that simultaneously points beyond the common dilemma of common traditionalism or following Europe. If viewed chronologically, the three writings clearly display a negative tendency of development, carrying on originally conservative, romantic Catholicism in the direction of right-wing radicalism and/or a kind of Catholic totalitarianism. The thoughts of the three authors, Unamuno partially excepted, tend with all their personal benevolence towards what would manifest itself in the political creed of the falange from the 1930s as the decisive moment in Spanish history.

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