Scripta Mediterranea (E-Journal)

Bitter, Cynthia

English

Gerald Brenan and the Genres

Carlucci, Laura

Artists and Authors in Sacchetti's Novelle

Guerrero, Jorge

Galeote, Manuel (Ed.). Córdoba Lingüística y literaria. Iznájar, Córdoba: Colleccíon Letras de la Subbética, 2003.r

Dendle, Brian J.

Reviews 77 
literary commentary by Juan de Valdes, Juan Martinez de Jauregui, Gongora, 
Quevedo, Lope de Vega and Cervantes. The three texts from the nineteenth cen-
tury exhibit literary commentary by Mesonero Ramos, Larra and Pardo Bazan. 
Each text is fittingly organized and contextualized. Every chapter starts with 
biographical information and the literary-historical contextualization of the 
author's work. Additionally, there is bibliographical information on relevant 
critical sources. Regarding the actual selection of literary commentary, the 
authors have highlighted important terms, name of authors, etc., and these 
appear, in lieu of footnotes, at the end of the book. 
As for the specific content of the selections, for the Golden Age period, the 
authors have chosen a number of texts illustrating Juan de Valdes' views on 
Spanish literature, namely a Renaissance perspective on Spanish literature; the 
debate on culteranismo; Lope's ideas on the dramatic work; and Cervantes' the-
ory of the novel. The nineteenth-century selection includes texts representing 
Mesonero Romanos' parody of Romantic literature, Larra's views on Spanish 
literature and Pardo Bazan's reflections on Naturalism in Spain. 
Selected Literary Commentary in the Literature of Spain has been prepared 
with literary pedagogy in mind. It provides an excellent introduction and con-
text to the study of some of the major literary debates of the Peninsular canon. 
One wonders if the project might have been better served if it had focused 
exclusively on one of the major periods. Nevertheless, the book could be an 
excellent aid as an introduction to some of the most important literary issues in 
Peninsular literature from the perspective of literature itself. Those who habit-
ually work or might be interested in working with some of these literary 
debates in their courses will benefit from having them organized and properly 
contextualized in this book. 
Jorge Carlos Guerrero 
University of Toronto 
La presse judeo-arabe dans la Tunisie coloniale (1884-1896). Mohamed Larbi 
Snoussi. Preface by Khalifa Chater. Tunis: MediaCom, 2003. 
Supplementing and correcting the work of such earlier scholars as Eusebe 
Vassel, Daniel Hagege, et al., Mohamed Larbi Snoussi examines numerous jour-
nals published in "judeo-arabe" (Tunisian Arabic transcribed in Hebrew char-
acters) between 1884 and 1896. Tunisian Jews split into two communities: the 
Twansa (indigenous Jews) and the Grana CTews of Italian ancestry and sympa-
thies). For the early period of this study, covering journals published under the 
press law of October 1884, Mohamed Larbi Snoussi details publishers and edi-
torial content of such ephemeral publications as Moubachar Sidq (1885), 
Mounawar El Haq (1886), Moucharrah Al-Asdar (1886), Al Badr Al Kamel (1886), 
and Fahhah al-Asrar (1887). The liberal press laws of 1887 to 1897 saw the publi-
cation of numerous, for the most part short-lived, journals in Judeo-Arabic, of 
which the most important were the Zionist El-Boustan (1887-1895), which 
opposed the evangelizing efforts of Cardinal Lavigerie, El-Mouhayyar 
(1891-1892), and Al-Ittihad (1893 - 1894), which unfavorably contrasted the sit-
uation of Jews of Tunisia with those of France and which called on Tunisian 
Jews to assimilate French culture. 
78 Reviews 
One of the strengths of Dr. Snoussi's study is his evaluation of the context 
in which Judeo-Arabic journals were published. The censorship imposed by the 
press law of January 1897 was not responsible for the death of Judeo-Arabic 
journals, which had already succumbed to the strains of Twansa-Grana dis-
putes, generational conflict, tiny circulation, and the appearance of Jewish jour-
nals published in French. Tunisian anti-Semitism for Snoussi was a Christian 
phenomenon, found in French anti-Dreyfusards and poor Italian colonists. 
Even before the Dreyfus Affair, Marc Fournel had claimed: "le juif est un animal 
nuisible envoye par le Diable pour nuir a la Tunisie" (Le Christianisme et l'Islam 
dans l'Afrique septentrionale, Paris, 1886). The colonial power feared the Italian 
sympathies of the Grana. Anti-Jewish riots in 1898 and 1899 also made the pub-
lication of journals in Hebraic characters inadvisable. 
Dr. Snoussi's text is accompanied by copious notes, bibliography, and an 
index. 
Brian J. Dendle 
University of Kentucky 
Enrique Nieto. Con dos sentidos. Una selecci6n de art(culos publicados en prensa 
(1975-2003). Antologfa de Victoria Vidal Navarro. Murcia: Fundaci6n 
Cajamurcia, 2003. 
Enrique Nieto made his career as a teacher in Cartagena, is an artist - the work 
under review is illustrated in black and white drawings by the author- , and 
has for many years commented on local society in the press of Cartagena and 
Murcia. Con dos sentidos contains selected articles written between 1975 and 
2003. Nieto provides penetrating vignettes of the social transformations- not 
always favourable- that have overwhelmed Spain in the last quarter of a cen-
tury. He notes the unplanned, urban sprawl of La Manga, ecological destruc-
tion, societal indifference to the plight of immigrants and the poor, teenage 
slang, bureaucratic jargon, pollution and industrial decline in Cartagena, the 
isolation of the old, the selfishness of a consumer society, and cultural impov-
erishment. 
Nieto offers a first-hand account of an underfunded education system: 
overcrowded classes of up to forty pupils, masificaci6n in universities, unmoti-
vated students, insufficient classroom space and supplies, bureaucratic 
demands, inappropriate programs especially in the (now reformed) Formaci6n 
Profesional, the decline in prestige of the humanities, and inappropriate univer-
sity entrance examinations. Despite overwork and stress, most Spanish are con-
scientious professionals. Nieto notes the problems faced by many Spanish 
teenagers: the emotional difficulties of the children of divorced or unemployed 
parents, alcoholism and drug addiction, the inner void of overprogrammed 
youth, aggressively foul language, violent behavior, truancy, lack of career 
opportunities, and a sexual freedom which is often accompanied by sexual 
ignorance and emotional immaturity. Nieto also understands the difficulties of 
parents valiantly coping with financial pressures and struggling to come to 
terms with a generation gap that is perhaps more pronounced in Spain than in 
North America. 
Less interesting for the non-Murcian reader are Nieto's at first gently iron-


La presse judéo-arabe dans la Tunisie coloniale (1884-1896). Mohamed Larbi Snoussi. Preface by Khalifa Charter. Tunis: MediaCom, 2003.

Valverde, María Teresa Caro

La pédagogie romantique de la Méditerranée dans les portraits d'Azorín et Miró

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Gerald Brenan and the Genres

Artists and Authors in Sacchetti's Novelle

Galeote, Manuel (Ed.). Córdoba Lingüística y literaria. Iznájar, Córdoba: Colleccíon Letras de la Subbética, 2003.r

La presse judéo-arabe dans la Tunisie coloniale (1884-1896). Mohamed Larbi Snoussi. Preface by Khalifa Charter. Tunis: MediaCom, 2003.

La pédagogie romantique de la Méditerranée dans les portraits d'Azorín et Miró

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