Spanish 19th-century press as a dialogical network of texts and a vehicle for linguistic ideologies

Abstract

In the 19th century, mainly, from the second half of the century, the Spanish press became a privileged medium for intellectuals, scholars, teachers, and other prominent figures of the time, who made significant efforts to fill the pages of numerous newspapers, dailies, and magazines circulating in our country. Although not always with identical intentions, we are dealing with a group of individuals who either possess expertise in their writing or promote an atmosphere of participation and dialogue with more or less extensive social groups. This turned the medium into a dialogic network of texts in which these authors served as starting points for various processes of ideological discourse on a wide range of topics. Notably, the growing interest in attitudes toward language and its teaching became prominent as the century progressed. At times, these language enthusiasts presented their ideas without explicit reference to other authorities, while in other instances, they relied on sources that supported and legitimized their linguistic ideas. In either case, their ideological positions were not only influenced by the works or authors used as references but also by the selective or reinterpretation of texts.

This work aims to analyze this dual aspect of the nineteenth-century press: its configuration as a complex network of texts of various natures and its powerful role as a vehicle for linguistic ideologies. This was done either in the service of the weak in their advocacy efforts, whether individual or collective, or alongside the powerful in shaping collective consciousness or enforcing and disseminating obligations, in order to provide a provisional characterization of some of the most unique ideological prototypes found in the pages of these periodical publications and to demonstrate the relevance, pertinence, and circulation of the sources cited, as well as their relationships with the linguistic ideas within the periodical text.