On Don Juan and Beyond: Masculinity Studies in Modern Spain

Abstract

The prominence of the figure of Don Juan marks the Spanish literature on masculinities which will be analyzed in this article. This distinctive trait, obvious when comparing it to English-speaking masculinity studies, is responsible for the highest achievements of masculinity studies in Spain. Those studies benefit from the fact that the figure of Don Juan is a stylization of modern masculinity. Other historiographies could also benefit from it, but for that to happen, Spanish scholars must intensify their dialogue with those historiographies. A critical thinking on masculinities based on Don Juan will not be beneficial, however, if Don Juan is taken as a description of a specific territory, whether it be Castile, Spain or Latin America. Beyond Don Juan, the relation between masculinity and nation and with other phenomena on the process of modernization has concentrated a good deal of effort among Spanish scholars; this article contends that the figure of Don Juan could shed new light on that field of research.