French Literature Reviews - 2026
V. Trancart, Visiones desafinadas. Prácticas y representaciones de la guitarra en Madrid y en Andalucía (1883-1922)
Art and Visual Culture
Visiones desafinadas. Prácticas y representaciones de la guitarra en Madrid y en Andalucía (1883-1922)
Vinciane Trancart
Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza, col. "De Arte", 2020.
458 p.
35,00 €
ISBN : 978-84-17873-66-0
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During the Restoration period, the guitar was frequently referred to as the "national instrument" in Madrid and Andalusia. This commonplace served as a paradoxical symbol of an identity under debate: while the cliché oversimplified reality, folk, classical, and flamenco guitar practices were rapidly diversifying. Increasingly numerous literary and visual representations failed to capture these shifts, yet they deeply permeated the collective imagination, shaping the public reception of an instrument that was often misunderstood or even dismissed on socio-moral grounds. Despite such criticism, the guitar retained a symbolic dimension characteristic of "banal nationalism," making its presence felt through the emotional resonance it evoked.
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Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
Artistic or Folk Instrument? Diversity and Evolution of Practice
- The Significance of Folk Practice
- The Specialization of Classical and Flamenco Guitars
Artistic Representations
- In Prose Literature
- From a Poetic Topos to a Metonymy of the Poem
- In Painting
The Praised Guitar
- The Popularity of the Folk Guitar
- Increasingly Mesmerizing Soloists
- Voices Hailing the Flamenco Guitar
The "Barbaric" Guitar
- Scholarly Disdain
- The Wretched and the "Flamenquista" Decline
The Guitar: A National Instrument? Ambiguities and Paradoxes
- Embracing the Stereotype
- Denouncing the Españolada
- A Paradoxical Symbol of the National Community
Epilogue and Coda
Selected Bibliography
Appendices
List of Illustrations
Index of Names
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the cultural status of the Spanish guitar was marked by tensions between popular traditions and elite expectations. While folk, classical and flamenco practices evolved across diverse social spheres, public discourse often relied on stereotypes that framed the instrument through the lens of national identity. This period of artistic transformation and social debate highlighted the ways in which cultural practices interacted with broader currents during the Restoration era, reflecting a society reinterpreting its heritage.
Vinciane Trancart's Visiones desafinadas. Prácticas y representaciones de la guitarra en Madrid y en Andalucía (1883-1922) examines how literary texts, poetry and visual representations captured or overlooked these musical developments, shaping the collective imagination surrounding the instrument. The study maps out the coexistence of widespread social praise and persistent scholarly disdain, addressing the paradoxes of the guitar as a symbol of national culture. Readers interested in the cultural history of music and the arts in Spain may find it relevant.