Abstract

While Spain is referred to as the “Madre Patria” by most of his ex-colonies in Central and South America, it is also often perceived as a National Mother by its own citizens. This cultural particularity will be discussed in this paper as “Optima Mater,” an allegiance to an Imaginary Motherhood that often justifies complexes of superiority and narcissistic tendencies within and without the Spanish culture. In order to illustrate this identified phenomenon of rising nationalism, I focus on recent Spanish shows from Netflix as well as passages from literature produced between 2000 and 2021.

Presenters

Frederic Conrod
Professor, Comparative Literature, Florida Atlantic University, Florida, United States

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Literary Humanities

KEYWORDS

Narcissism, Spanish Culture, Netflix, Nationalism

Digital Media

Videos