The image of Islam in contemporary Spanish orientalist discourse: A critical study in the Light of Juan Goytisolo's reading

Abstract

This research discusses the image of Islam in Spanish Orientalist discourse as the product of a long history of accumulated representations. It emphasizes the uniqueness of the Spanish case due to the Andalusian experience and the religious and political clashes that followed, which led to the emergence of Spanish Orientalism within a context of ecclesiastical polemics linked to the Reconquista and the Inquisition, resulting in the entrenchment of charged representations in theological, literary, and historical writings. However, the study refuses to treat this discourse as a monolithic whole, distinguishing between a polemical and prejudiced trend and a more objective scientific trend that emerged in the nineteenth century.

The research formulates a central question about how the image of Islam is formed in contemporary Spanish Orientalism and the extent to which it can be re-evaluated through a reading of Juan Goytisolo, branching out into identifying the characteristics of the polemical trend and explaining what the academic trend accomplishes in 'redistributing meaning' within the Spanish cultural field. It adopts a historical-critical discourse analysis approach by tracing polemical models, comparing them with the academic trend, and then testing the deconstruction tools proposed by Goytisolo.

In its analytical summary, the research defines the structure of the polemical trend through three major mechanisms: transforming historical phenomena into a 'fixed essence' (essentialism); generalising normative judgements about Islam as a single entity; and reproducing exclusion in theological or nationalist forms, so that the image of Islam is constructed through presuppositions that determine the field of vision and the limits of interpretation, rather than through a fair internal reading of Islamic texts.

This corresponds to a philological-historical shift that introduced epistemological tools such as source criticism and investigation, and institutional tools such as the JAE/CEH networks, with a thematic expansion towards cultural history and the history of ideas. However, the research points out that academic transformation does not automatically remove the symbolic layer of the image from the cultural imagination. Here, Goytisolo is read as a critic of the structure of image production rather than merely a corrector of information. He sees the image of the 'Moro' as the product of an 'accumulation of inherited stereotypes,' and holds that what matters most is to understand the mechanism by which representation passes from historical facts to symbolic mythologisation, rather than issuing a comprehensive categorical judgement on the field.