This book studies the relationship between landscape and modern identities in the Basque Country. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines cultural history and geography, it analyses the process of historical construction of the Basque landscape, highlighting its multiple political, social and cultural meanings.

Maitane Ostolaza is Full Professor at the Faculty of Letters and Humanities at the University of Perpignan (France). A specialist on modern Spain, she has published numerous works on the history of religious education in modern Spain as well as on the cultural construction of the Spanish nation. Her latest research focuses on the symbolic and identity values of landscape. Her previous books are Entre religión y modernidad. Los colegios de las congregaciones religiosas en la construcción de la sociedad guipuzcoana contemporánea (1876-1931), 2000; Emoción e identidad nacional: Cataluña y el País Vasco en perspectiva comparada, 2015, co-edited with Géraldine Galeote and Maria Llombart Huesca.

Acronyms and Abbreviations

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Part One

DISCOURSES, IMAGES AND REPRESENTATIONS OF LANDSCAPE

CHAPTER 1: Narratives of Landscape

Romantic Landscapes, Mythical Landscapes

Landscapes of Fuerismo: Between the Oasis and the Indomitable Mountains

In Search of a Vernacular Landscape

From Region to Nation via Landscape

Regional Landscapes

National Landscapes

CHAPTER 2: The Dissemination of Landscape Discourse and Language: The Role of the Press

The Modern Press and the Dissemination of Landscape Discourse

Journals and Periodicals: Pioneers in Extolling the Basque Landscape

The 1920s Press: Landscape as a Means of Nation Building

The Basque-Language Press and the Popular View of Landscape

Part Two

LANDSCAPE PRACTICES

CHAPTER 3: Tourism and Excursions

Tourism, Identity and Landscape

Excursions

Touristic and Recreational Excursions

CHAPTER 4: Mountaineering, Landscape and Identity

Discovering the Mountains

Landscape and Gender: Women Take to the Mountains

From the Mountains to the Nation: The Mendigoizales

CONCLUSION

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX