Nostalgia for Empire?: Ortega y Gasset’s Use of Memory during Spain’s Crisis of Identity

Abstract

This article identifies a consistent thread in Ortega y Gasset’s early political thought from 1914-1921. This thread lies in his treatment of Spain’s identity crisis after their defeat against the United States in the Disaster of 1898. Two of his early books, Meditaciones del Quijote and España Invertebrada, are identified as works that reveal the historical causes and effects of Spain’s identity crisis. Both works meditate upon the significance of Spain’s imperial past as a solution to their identity crisis yet reach different conclusions about what their imperial past means for their present situation. It is argued that the tying thread within his approaches to address Spain’s identity crisis is in his appeal to a particular historical method based on his metaphysical assertion that "I am myself plus my circumstances."