The discovery of the alterity in the iberian travellers during 19th century

Abstract

In this article we present an analysis of national imagotypes in travel literature in the Iberian Peninsula in the second half of the 19th century. Peninsular travellers, especially after the railway connection between Madrid and Lisbon in 1866, began to acknowledge the other country. These travellers, mostly supporters of the Iberian Union, set out to verify the non-existence of geographical or cultural borders. However, throughout their journey, they found characterological differences and built imaginaries that instead stated the peninsular alterity. The trip was a way of imagining the nation through contact with the other.