The image of Spain in Dutch travel writing (1860-1960)

"Spain is brute, anarchistic, egocentric, cruel, Spain is prepared to destroy itself for nonsensical reasons, it is chaotic, it dreams, it is irrational." This quote from Cees Nooteboom’s ‘De omweg naar Santiago’ (Detour to Santiago) stands in a long tradition of stereotyping Spain and the Spaniards as typically Southern European - a country and a people with qualities towards which people from the North of Europe have adopted an, alternately, critical and admiring attitude.
In this study, the images pertaining to Spain are researched, such as they appear in travel accounts that have been written and published by Dutch travellers who visited the country between 1860 and 1960. The objective of this study is not only an inventory of the stereotypes, but also, and in particular, an analysis of the underlying factors which determine the formation of the image content.