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White Wall of Spain: The Mysteries of Andalusian Culture
From the ancient Phoenicians through Maimonides to Pablo Picasso's retrospective exhibit at the Museum of Moden Art in 1980, this fascinating swift trip through the past spans more than three thousand years of Spain's Andalusian civilization, the oldest in the Western world.
Allen Josephs focuses on the cultural distinctions that have set Andalucia apart throughout recorded its Oriental origins, its ancient commerce and industry, its religious practices, and its varied artistic expression of those practices through music, dance, and the drama of toreo . In a marvel of synthesis, Josephs interweaves the writings of poets, historians, and archaeologists from Strabo and Polybius to Adolph Schulten, Richard Ford, Jose Ortega y Gasset, and Federico Garcia Lorca to illuminate the pervasive influence of this ancient culture on all Hispanic peoples. Allen Josephs is University Research Professor and professor of Spanish in the Department of English and Foreign Languages at the University of West Florida, Pensacola. He has published a number of books, as well as articles in scholarly journals and in the Atlantic, Boston Review, New Republic , and New York Times Book Review .
Allen Josephs focuses on the cultural distinctions that have set Andalucia apart throughout recorded its Oriental origins, its ancient commerce and industry, its religious practices, and its varied artistic expression of those practices through music, dance, and the drama of toreo . In a marvel of synthesis, Josephs interweaves the writings of poets, historians, and archaeologists from Strabo and Polybius to Adolph Schulten, Richard Ford, Jose Ortega y Gasset, and Federico Garcia Lorca to illuminate the pervasive influence of this ancient culture on all Hispanic peoples. Allen Josephs is University Research Professor and professor of Spanish in the Department of English and Foreign Languages at the University of West Florida, Pensacola. He has published a number of books, as well as articles in scholarly journals and in the Atlantic, Boston Review, New Republic , and New York Times Book Review .
- GenresSpain
187 pages, Paperback
First published November 30, 1983
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About the author
Allen Josephs
19 books4 followers Allen Josephs, University Research Professor in the Department of English at the University of West Florida, is the author of a dozen books, all related to Spain and Latin America.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 16, 2017
an eloquent fantasia
Let's get down to brass tacks right away. Painting a picture of Andalusian culture based on elements of literature, poetry, historical hearsay, and personal feeling is not the same as doing so through serious history and anthropology. I will not dispute that Josephs has a perfect right to write in any way he likes. That's a given. But do I have to go along with him ? That's another story. Yes, the author waxes eloquent on every page, never shrinking from a poetic phrase. He picks and chooses from the pages of Andalusian history, sprinkles it with many a chthonian inference, with "Oriental nature", "atavistic", "immutable" and many other turns of phrase more suitable for a discussion of aesthetics than of history or culture. He finds the great historian Braudel merely "intriguing". When he writes such things as "delightful in a splendidly naïve fashion" or "Gypsies, sifting through the ancient musical sediment of Andalucia as they arrived....", I felt that I would have to add considerable grains of salt to what I read. He attributes the "ivory, apes, and peacocks" for Solomon's temple to Andalusia, though I believe it was long ago settled that these came from India, with some Hebrew words for these resembling the ancient Tamil. I feel the book falls through the cracks between literature and historical/cultural studies. But most dishearteningly of all, Josephs concentrates on ancient Iberia, the half-mythical city of Tarshish, the Carthaginians, other Near Eastern peoples that arrived in Spain, and then the Romans--saying that Andalusian culture today (1980s) has continued in an unbroken line from them. Certainly he does find convincing evidence that SOME part of the culture can trace back to those times. He talks about tuna fishing, dancing girls/flamenco, the mother goddess, and bulls--as a ritual not just as a sport. There are links, sure. But ladies and gentlemen, Andalucia was ruled by Muslims for over 700 years. Muslim culture gets no serious examination while a whole chapter is devoted to Picasso's so-called Andalusian roots. The word "Islam" does not even appear in the index ! I still agree that the construction of a book is the author's prerogative. But please don't ask me to take this book too seriously !!
Let's get down to brass tacks right away. Painting a picture of Andalusian culture based on elements of literature, poetry, historical hearsay, and personal feeling is not the same as doing so through serious history and anthropology. I will not dispute that Josephs has a perfect right to write in any way he likes. That's a given. But do I have to go along with him ? That's another story. Yes, the author waxes eloquent on every page, never shrinking from a poetic phrase. He picks and chooses from the pages of Andalusian history, sprinkles it with many a chthonian inference, with "Oriental nature", "atavistic", "immutable" and many other turns of phrase more suitable for a discussion of aesthetics than of history or culture. He finds the great historian Braudel merely "intriguing". When he writes such things as "delightful in a splendidly naïve fashion" or "Gypsies, sifting through the ancient musical sediment of Andalucia as they arrived....", I felt that I would have to add considerable grains of salt to what I read. He attributes the "ivory, apes, and peacocks" for Solomon's temple to Andalusia, though I believe it was long ago settled that these came from India, with some Hebrew words for these resembling the ancient Tamil. I feel the book falls through the cracks between literature and historical/cultural studies. But most dishearteningly of all, Josephs concentrates on ancient Iberia, the half-mythical city of Tarshish, the Carthaginians, other Near Eastern peoples that arrived in Spain, and then the Romans--saying that Andalusian culture today (1980s) has continued in an unbroken line from them. Certainly he does find convincing evidence that SOME part of the culture can trace back to those times. He talks about tuna fishing, dancing girls/flamenco, the mother goddess, and bulls--as a ritual not just as a sport. There are links, sure. But ladies and gentlemen, Andalucia was ruled by Muslims for over 700 years. Muslim culture gets no serious examination while a whole chapter is devoted to Picasso's so-called Andalusian roots. The word "Islam" does not even appear in the index ! I still agree that the construction of a book is the author's prerogative. But please don't ask me to take this book too seriously !!
November 13, 2014
This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in Spain and its past. It is a well written, erudite coverage of the history of Andalusia and the unbroken links that it has with prehistory. It certainly has made me aware of much about Spain that I never knew before. Although it is not an easy read, (I needed the dictionary on hand most of the time) it is well worth persevering with it. My perspective on Andalusia, on flamenco, Picasso and even bull fighting has widened considerably since reading it. It is one of those books that you want to share with others.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews