Marianne y España: la identidad nacional en la Primera República española.

Abstract

Based upon the republican symbolism used in the Sexenio revolucionario political press, this article describes the different symbols used to represent the Nation, at the time of the First Spanish Republic. It will be shown how the National Emblematic representation (the Nation's allego-ries, the coat of arms, the National seal) wavered between the use of French symbolical models such as the famous Marianne or the Phrygian cap, and a deep embedding in the national historical reality. At last, the main conclusión to be drawn is that the official emblems of the Spanish first democratic experience are characterised by a genuine tendency to minimize the political and ideological content, so that the idea of the Repu-blic might be accepted by the whole nation. Nevertheless, the political debate at that time about the question of National symbolism is an inte-resting opportunity to think over the Spanish national identity.