1st Edition

The Camino de Santiago in the 21st Century Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Global Views

Edited By Samuel Sánchez y Sánchez, Annie Hesp Copyright 2016
    228 Pages
    by Routledge

    242 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The Spanish Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage rooted in the Medieval period and increasingly active today, has attracted a growing amount of both scholarly and popular attention. With its multiple points of departure in Spain and other European countries, its simultaneously secular and religious nature, and its international and transhistorical population of pilgrims, this particular pilgrimage naturally invites a wide range of intellectual inquiry and scholarly perspectives. This volume fills a gap in current pilgrimage studies, focusing on contemporary representations of the Camino de Santiago. Complementing existing studies of the Camino’s medieval origins, it situates the Camino as a modern experience and engages interdisciplinary perspectives to present a theoretical framework for exploring the most central issues that concern scholars of pilgrimage studies today.

    Contributors explore the contemporary meaning of the Camino through an interdisciplinary lens that reflects the increasing permeability between academic disciplines and fields, bringing together a wide range of theoretical and critical perspectives (cultural studies, literary studies, globalization studies, memory studies, ethnic studies, postcolonial studies, cultural geographies, photography, and material culture). Chapters touch on a variety of genres (blogs, film, graphic novels, historical novels, objects, and travel guides), and transnational perspectives (Australia, the Arab world, England, Spain, and the United States).

    Introduction: The Camino de Santiago in the 21st Century: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Global Views Samuel Sánchez y Sánchez and Annie Hesp  Part 1: Historical and Political Perspectives on the Camino  1. Historical and Modern Signs of "Real" Pilgrims on the Road to Santiago de Compostela Maryjane Dunn  2. Revival of the Medieval Past: Francisco Franco and the Camino de Santiago Lynn Talbot  3. Whose Camino is it? (Re)defining Europe on the Camino de Santiago Steven Gardner, Carl Mentley, and Lisa Signori  Part 2: Literary and Visual Representations of the Camino  4. Picturing the Camino de Santiago in Contemporary Pilgrimage Blogs Cristina Ogden  5. Redefining the Nation through the Camino de Santiago in the Graphic Novel Genre Henri-Simon Blanc-Hoang  6. Two Religions on One Road to Santiago: Polyethnicity and Syncretism on the Camino in Saint-Jacques...La Mecque John K. Moore Jr.  Part 3: Transformations and Identity in the Camino  7. Lost and Found: Materiality and Personal Transformation on the Camino de Santiago Samuel Sánchez y Sánchez  8. The Australian Way: Transnational Flows and the Twenty First Century Camino Paul Genoni  9. The Camino de Santiago as Global Narrative: Literary Representations and Identity Creation Nicole Rasch

    Biography

    Samuel Sánchez y Sánchez is Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at Davidson College, USA. His research interests include literary and cultural representations of love and death in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia, Pilgrimage Studies, and Linguistics. He has published on the literary reception of Don Quijote, early modern desire, medieval narratives of mourning, and on the connections between early modern models of readership and material culture.

    Annie Hesp is an Instructor of Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Virginia Tech, USA. Her areas of research include literary and visual representations of the Camino de Santiago. She has published on the Camino as a pedagogical tool and on first-person Camino narratives.

    "Global awareness and global travel have reanimated ancient pilgrimage trails as highways for health, paths toward self-awareness, and avenues for understanding among religions and nations. Sánchez y Sánchez and Hesp demonstrate how Spain’s Camino de Santiago offers a template for assessing travel for transformation in a new world of sojourning." —George Greenia, College of William & Mary, USA

    "This collection brings together some of the world’s leading Camino scholars to reflect on the contemporary experience of the Camino de Santiago. It will take its place alongside classic work by Dunn & Davidson. A must-read!" —Lesley D. Harman, King’s University College at Western University, Canada