Símbolos culturales, mito e identidad en cuatro novelas de ficción romántica popular inglesa del siglo XX ambientadas en Tenerife

              Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16 1
© 2018 Cabildo de Gran Canaria. Este es un artículo de acceso abierto distribuido bajo los términos de la licencia Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 4.0 Internacional.
CULTURAL SYMBOLS, MYTH AND IDENTITY IN FOUR 20TH-CEN-TURY
ENGLISH POPULAR ROMANCE FICTION NOVELS
SET IN TENERIFE1
SÍMBOLOS CULTURALES, MITO E IDENTIDAD EN CUATRO
NOVELAS DE FICCIÓN ROMÁNTICA POPULAR INGLESA DEL
SIGLO XX AMBIENTADAS EN TENERIFE
María Jesús Vera-Cazorla*
Recibido: 15 de febrero de 2017
Aceptado: 19 de septiembre de 2017
Cómo citar este artículo/Citation: Vera-Cazorla, M. J. (2018). Símbolos culturales, el mito e identidad en cuatro
novelas de ficción romántica popular inglesa del siglo XX ambientadas en Tenerife. Anuario de Estudios Atlánti-cos,
nº 64: 064-021. http://anuariosatlanticos.casadecolon.com/index.php/aea/article/view/10176
Resumen: En este trabajo se examina la visión que aparece de la isla de Tenerife (islas Canarias, España) en cuatro
obras tomadas de un corpus más amplio de novelas románticas publicadas en lengua inglesa entre 1958 y 1994
por la conocida editorial Mills & Boon. Nuestro objetivo es analizar si la información cultural que se menciona
en estos textos es real o un producto de la imaginación de sus autoras y discutir qué aspectos de la cultura canaria
llamaron la atención de las escritoras principalmente. Tras un breve análisis del género de la novela rosa (popular
romance fiction), se describe el paisaje simbólico y cultural que se ofrece de la isla de Tenerife. Para el análisis
de los encuentros interculturales entre la protagonista británica y los personajes canarios, utilizamos la teoría de
Geert Hofstede sobre las dimensiones culturales, un marco para la comunicación entre culturas que describe los
efectos de la cultura de una sociedad en los valores de sus miembros y cómo estos valores están relacionados con
sus acciones.
Palabras clave: Novela romántica, contacto intercultural, Tenerife, símbolos culturales canarios
Abstract: This paper examines the vision presented of the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) in four nov-els,
taken from a wider corpus of popular romance novels published by well-known Mills & Boon between 1958
and 1994. Our aim is to analyse whether the cultural information mentioned in the novels is real or a figment of
the authors’ imagination, and discuss what aspects of the Canarian culture attracted the authors’ attention the most.
After a brief review of the genre of popular romance fiction, we describe the symbolic and cultural landscape of
Tenerife in these popular romance novels. For the analysis of the cross-cultural encounters between the British
protagonist and the Canarian characters, we use Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory, a framework for
cross-cultural communication which describes the efects of a society’s culture on the values of its members, and
how these values are related to their actions.
Keywords: Popular romance, intercultural contact, Tenerife, Canarian cultural symbols
* Profesora de Metodología y Didáctica de la enseñanza de las lenguas modernas y de Lengua Inglesa. Departamento de
Lenguas Modernas. Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. C/ Pérez del Toro, 1. 35004. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
España. Teléfono: +34 928 458 957; correo electrónico: mariajesus.vera@ulpgc.es
1 This research was funded by the MINECO (Spanish Ministry of Economy & Competition) through Research Project
FFI2014-53962-P, Discursos, género e identidad en un corpus de novela rosa inglesa ambientada en Canarias y otras islas
atlánticas. This grant is hereby gratefully acknowledged.
MARÍA JESÚS VERA-CAZORLA
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas d 2 e Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16
Introduction
Throughout their history, the Canary Islands have experienced a process of mystification few lands
in the world have undergone2. The islands were considered heaven on earth, a blissful paradise and the
place where, according to classical Greek and Roman authors, mythical lands such as the Elysian Fields,
the Fortunate Isles, the Islands of the Blessed, the Atlantis, the Garden of the Hesperides or the island
of Saint Brendan were found3. Four factors have favoured this concentration of the mythical and the
extraordinary in the archipelago: the island, the mountain, the ends of the known world and the weather
factor. As a symbolic landscape, the concept of island has been linked to several cultural constructs.
According to Kappler4, they are especially appreciated as a closed universe with their very particular
imaginary. An island is, by nature, a location where wonder exists, beyond the usual laws and under a
regime of its own; it is the place of the arbitrary. From ancient Greek times, islands are a favourite place
for the most extraordinary human and divine adventures.
The Canaries are part of Spain but geographically closer to remote and fascinating Africa, as well as
a popular holiday destination among the British who have been visiting the islands for centuries. This
explains why the Canary Islands have been mentioned in a great variety of texts. In 2002 González-Cruz
classified the English texts containing references to these islands into guidebooks, weather and health
studies, travel journals, fiction, historical, socio-cultural or linguistic studies, and studies about nature.
In each genre, a specific reader-oriented image of the islands can be found, helping to perpetuate the
myth of a paradise on earth. Although popular romance novels were not included in González-Cruz’s
first bibliographical repertoire, as she discovered this corpus later on, we can’t but agree with her view
that they contributed to the spreading of the idyllic image of the Canaries, by describing them as the
Enchanted Islands, the Lost Atlantis, or the Fortunate Isles. According to this author, «despite occasional
mention of some minor drawbacks, the image of the islands that seems to be predominantly ofered in
these texts is that of a paradise»5.
On the other hand, novels located in foreign and exotic backgrounds were especially popular in the
U.K. from the 1950s «after the harshness and austerity of wartime in Great Britain, and as more people
were going on overseas holidays»6. These novels function as impromptu travel guides providing readers
with basic phrases and expressions or with information about the typical places, events and traditional
foods that should not be missed when they go abroad.
This study will be focused on the vision of the island of Tenerife portrayed in four novels taken from
the much wider corpus of popular romance novels that is being compiled for Research Project FFI2014-
53962-P. Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands and a popular background scene in many of these
books. Issues such as whether the data mentioned in the novels are real or a figment of the authors’
imagination and what aspects of the Canarian culture attracted the authors’ attention the most will be
examined and discussed in this paper, whose main objective is to make an overall analysis of the cross-cultural
encounters observed in these books. The extent to which Canarian symbols, heroes, rituals and
values are understood by the visitors will also be considered. For this purpose, the following novels have
been chosen: Catherine Airlie. Red Lotus (1958), Pippa Lane. Nurse in Tenerife (1978), Jean McLeod.
Meeting in Madrid (1979), Margaret Mayo. Bitter Memories (1994). All of them were published by
Mills & Boon and Harlequin, the most popular publishers of love stories worldwide. In the following
section we will provide an outline of the genre and will briefly describe the plots of the novels selected
for our study.
2 MARTÍNEZ HERNÁNDEZ (2002), SANTANA SANTANA et al. (2002), BELLO JIMÉNEZ (2005).
3 MARTÍNEZ HERNÁNDEZ (1992), (1996), (2002), (2010); CABRERA PERERA (1988).
4 KAPPLER (1986), p. 36.
5 GONZÁLEZ-CRUZ (2015), unnumbered pages.
6 MCALEER (1999), p. 244.
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16 3
SÍMBOLOS CULTURALES, MITO E IDENTIDAD EN CUATRO NOVELAS DE FICCIÓN...
The romance genre
The romance genre has been defined as «in which the love plot is central to the narrative»7. Although
it may seem that their arguments are always the same, the genre has evolved greatly over the years
adapting itself to the historical and social circumstances of the moment. According to Linda J. Lee, this
genre has much in common with traditional fairy tales as:
…both are highly formulaic; invoke a fantasy realm; focus on the creation or reconciliation of a roman-tic
pair; exist in an infinite variation of texts that fall into distinct types; and are often dismissed as being
“trivial.” With their prototypical marriage endings, criticisms are levied against both narrative forms for
their failure to challenge the system of social relations and norms from which they arise8.
However, when analysing the online catalogue of this publisher, the great variety of sub-genres such
as escape gay romance, erotica, paranormal, African-American romance or fantasy seems to contradict
the previous statement; nowadays, the genre has adjusted to include diferent races, situations as well as
a greater diversity of sexual behaviors. For Vivanco and Kramer, romance novels are «cultural agents»
that transmit «gender ideologies»9 as well as stereotypes and cultural manifestations since their wide
readership facilitates the spreading of ideas. According to González Mínguez,
Mills and Boon are serious historical documents which reflect shifting social values and denounce the dif-ficulties
women face in a men’s world. By analysing locations, heroes and heroines, marriage or sexual
relationships, I’ll try to demonstrate how these narratives have influenced on women of all ages and social
classes engulfing readers in a unique female atmosphere10.
In spite of the disrepute of the genre, these novels are acceptable examples of popular culture and
ofer a remarkable potential for exploring stereotypes and cultural manifestations. These books have a
wide readership and their authors have based their stories on beliefs and preconceived images of the
places in which their stories happen. In the case of the books whose plot evolves in foreign countries,
exoticism is usually given by both the male protagonist and the traditions of the place. In this paper,
popular romance fiction is used as a source to analyse some of the ways in which the Canaries are rep-resented;
in particular, we analysed the vision of the island of Tenerife. In these books we find many
stereotypes related to the image of the islands and the islanders, very much related to the ethnocentric
discourse of these British authors.
The plot of these novels is not expected to be realistic; popular romance fiction abounds in stereo-types
and preconceptions about a particular culture or place but the genre draws our attention to what
visitors to the Canaries might feel is genuine and representative, those aspects of the life on the island
that difer the most from what the main character, and the reader, will find at home. Yet, living on the
islands has changed dramatically since Red Lotus was published in 1958. This book appeared before
the tourist boom of the 60s, whereas Bitter Memories was published in 1994 and since then tourism has
become a key to the economic sector of the islands. In this period of nearly forty years, the islanders
have had the chance to encounter visitors on a more regular basis and the tourist has even become part
of Canarian folklore and a main character of stories and songs. The information about the islands that
the English tourist receives now is greater and more trustworthy than previously. Prior to the analysis of
the texts, I will summarize the plot of the chosen novels:
7 GONZÁLEZ-CRUZ (2015), unnumbered pages.
8 LEE (2008), p. 52.
9 VIVANCO & KRAMER (2010), p. 30.
10 GONZÁLEZ MÍNGUEZ (2010), pp. 179-180.
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas d 4 e Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16
Red Lotus (1958) by Catherine Airlie
After the death of her mother, Felicity Stanmore travels to Tenerife invited by her uncle. Soon after
arriving, he dies and she must take care of her three cousins with the help of Philip Arnold, her uncle’s
estate’s agent and fiancée of her deceased cousin Maria. While she learns to understand her Spanish
cousins, Felicity must learn to trust Philip Arnold and believe that he had no role in the death of his
cousin Maria.
Nurse in Tenerife (1978) by Pippa Lane
Trudy Foster, a nurse at Midthorpe General Hospital, is in love with a handsome doctor Derek La-ridine.
However, when she has to go and nurse her stepmother who lives on the island of Tenerife, she
meets Doctor Miguel Martina who falls in love in her. During her stay on the island, Trudy has to decide
between the two men.
Meeting in Madrid (1979) by Jean McLeod
A Spanish family hires Catherine Royce as a teenager’s governess. They both fly to Tenerife where
the girl’s stepmother, Lucia, lives. In Tenerife, Catherine must control Teresa’s bad relationship with her
stepmother and the jealousy Lucia feels toward her because of the interest she arouses in Teresa’s uncle,
Jaime.
Bitter Memories (1994) by Margaret Mayo
Tanya travels to Tenerife to visit her sister, who works in a hotel in the south of the island. There, she
is reunited with an old love, Alejandro, whom she believed had abandoned her to marry another woman.
During his stay, Alejandro tries to convince Tanya that they have a future together.
Before analysing the novels, it seems essential to consider, albeit briefly, the representation of Span-ishness
by the British community.
Spanishness
In a socio-historical and cultural approach to the discourses of Spanish national identity, Prieto Ar-ranz11
examines the image of Spain from the British perspective from the 16th century. For centuries
this image has been linked to Catholicism and religious fanaticism, especially since the reign of Mary I.
During the reign of Elizabeth I, support for the British government and the Church of England became a
synonym of patriotism. Prieto afirms that the Anglo-centric discourse of British identity, prolific in the
18th century, is based on the concept of freedom and was clearly constructed to oppose to the tyranny
of both France and Spain. This national-religious discourse remained in force during the second half of
the 19th century and the first half of the 20th.
More recently, the enormous number of historiographical, literary, cinematographic and television
works that recreate the Tudor period shows to what extent this historical period is considered determi-nant
in the process of construction of the British identity. Many of these works serve to transmit a Whig
version of British history. These contemporary television and film productions contribute to fostering
11 PRIETO ARRANZ (2012), unnumbered pages.
MARÍA JESÚS VERA-CAZORLA
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16 5
a stereotyped image of Spain and the Spanish as the equivalent of pettiness, intellectual and economic
backwardness, religious fanaticism, and material, intellectual and spiritual poverty. Nowadays, the fre-quent
use of the terms Armada and Inquisition is found in the field of sports but also in the financial
press12. In a 1993 travel guide entitled Culture Shock Spain, the author includes these terms in her six-page
summary of the history of Spain and uses the word “pirates” when writing about the Armada13.
It could only be natural to believe that this English image of Spain has changed with the arrival of
tourists and residents from that country since the 1960s.
During the 1980s, increasing numbers of British people began migrating to Spain’s coastal areas. At-tracted
by the warmth, the cost of living and the potential for a leisured lifestyle, and aided by portable
pensions and capital gained during the property boom of the 1970s, they were the outcome of a phenom-enon
which began in 1960s with cheap air travel and mass package tourism14.
Sociologist Karen O’Reilly has studied the attitudes of Englishmen living in the south of Spain on a
permanent basis. According to these migrants, Spain is a country of «bullfights and passion, quaintness
and backwardness, blood and revolution, peasants and traditions»15. The British residents find in Spain the
values of community, caring, sharing and responsibility that they used to associate with a historical bygone
Britain. Spain offers them an escape to the past16.
The long history of British-Spanish relationships has influenced the emergence of diferent stereo-types.
Stereotypes are «social structures which serve as mental pictures of the groups in question or the
traits that we view as characteristic of social groups, and particularly those that diferentiate groups from
each other»17. Although social categorising is part of the way we process information about others, we
should be aware that over-simplifying this information and identifying certain characteristics as belong-ing
to certain categories of people and events could lead to prejudice, discrimination and racism18. Even
if popular romance fiction could be described as a kind benevolent genre, there are references to some
British stereotypes about Spaniards such as chauvinism and religiosity in these novels.
A question that arises in some of these novels is whether the inhabitants of the islands are Canarians
or Spaniards. Although these four novels are set in the Canaries, there is no real agreement on whether
the inhabitants of the islands feel Canarian or Spanish. In Meeting in Madrid flamenco, bullfighters and
people shouting “Olé” are mentioned, which are elements alien to the Canarian culture, while the au-thors
of Red Lotus, Nurse in Tenerife and Bitter Memories make some references to the Guanches, the
original inhabitants of the islands who were ethnically related to the Berbers. On arrival to the islands,
Felicity Stanmore learns that
…[w]e are an isolated group, not quite in mid-Atlantic, but almost so for every practical purpose, cling-ing
to the skirts of Africa, but not African; fiercely proud of our Spanish forebears and looking always
towards the mother country of Spain19.
That is not, however, the feeling of the male protagonist of Bitter Memories when he states that
«politically we belong to Spain, but we prefer to think of ourselves as independent»20, and although the
authors declare that the islands are part of Spain, the idea of a lovely isolated paradise not far from Africa
is present in the books. Bitter Memories includes six pages at the end of the book with information about
Tenerife in which, under the heading “The Romantic Past”, it is said that when the Spaniards arrived
in the fifteenth century they found that the islands were inhabited by «a primitive people known as the
12 PRIETO ARRANZ (2012), unnumbered pages.
13 GRAFF (1993), p. 16.
14 O´REILLY (2002), p. 179.
15 O´REILLY (2002), p. 182.
16 O´REILLY (2002), p. 183.
17 VÁZQUEZ DE LA TORRE (2012), unnumbered pages.
18 VÁZQUEZ DE LA TORRE (2012), unnumbered pages.
19 AIRLIE (1958), p. 7.
20 MAYO (1994), p. 15.
SÍMBOLOS CULTURALES, MITO E IDENTIDAD EN CUATRO NOVELAS DE FICCIÓN...
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas d 6 e Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16
Guanches, who had blond hair and blue eyes, lived in caves and dressed in animal hide»21.
On the other hand, the positive allusion to the Guanches in these romance novels continues, unbe-known
to the authors, the tradition of the “noble savage” displayed in the works of 18th and 19th-century
historians and anthropologists on the first inhabitants of the Canary Islands. In Red Lotus the Guanches
and their lifestyle are referred to as
…a sturdy peasant race, and they fought bravely for their liberty, but since the Conquest they have been
more and more thrust into the background of the island’s living until they have agreed to take second
place. You will see the true types among the cave-dwellers in the troglodyte villages, but there has been
gradual intermarriage between certain types of Spanish settlers and these people22.
In Nurse in Tenerife, the author reflects an old and discarded hypothesis on the origin of the Guanch-es:
There is a romantic legend that the Canary Islands are the peaks of the lost continent of Atlantis which
used to exist between Africa and America […] When the Spaniards discovered these islands, they were
inhabited by Guanches, tall, fair people23.
As Estévez González24 maintains, the romanticized image of the Guanches coincides with the histo-riography
of the islands, and it is the result of the interconnection between science, political power and
ideology in the studies on the Canary Islands. Canarian historian, biologist and writer Viera y Clavijo
and the French naturalist and anthropologist Sabine Berthelot in the18th century as well as distinguished
19th century researchers such as Chil y Naranjo, Bethencourt Alfonso and Grau-Bassas all contributed to
consolidating the positive image of the Guanche. According to Viera y Clavijo, the Guanches were the
descendants of the ancient Atlanteans. Thus, with this noble lineage in mind, Viera could include them
in the history of the new Christian and European society that began to emerge after the conquest:
Culturally disbanded after the conquest, the natives began to take an imaginary existence in the histo-riography
of the islands, in the accounts of travellers and the more systematic works of anthropologists
and prehistorians. The common thread in all these accounts is a positive and archetypal image of the
Guanche, which includes from the nobility of their character and the spontaneity of their customs to the
innate strength of their race25.
The notion that the Guanches were tall with fair wavy hair dates back to the 19th century. In 1873 Franz
von Löer, German polygraph, visited the Canary Islands, commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria.
He made some comparisons between the epics of the Guanches and the Germans and launched the bold
and sensational theory that the natives of the Canary Islands were of German origin26. We find this idea
reflected in Nurse in Tenerife when we read «his hair was wavy and sandy-fair, and his complexion was
light, which show that he was probably Canarian in origin»27. As late as 1963, German physical anthro-pologist
Schwidetzky stated that the Canary Islands have been considered as a refuge for European races28.
There is no agreement among the authors of these romance fiction books as to whether the Canar-ians
are Spaniards or not. Consequently, they blend cultural elements of mainland Spain that are not
common on the islands with powerful symbols of Canarian culture. On the other hand, the image of the
noble savage, the Guanche, is very appealing as a means of diferentiating the islands from the rest of the
mainland. The presence of the Guanche, or at least the Guanche blood, reinforces the myth of paradise
21 MAYO (1994), pp. 182-183.
22 AIRLIE (1958), p. 42.
23 LANE (1978), p. 58.
24 ESTÉVEZ GONZÁLEZ (2011), pp. 149-164.
25 ESTÉVEZ GONZÁLEZ (2011), p. 151.
26 WENDT (1960).
27 LANE (1978), p. 20.
28 ESTÉVEZ GONZÁLEZ (2011), p. 159.
MARÍA JESÚS VERA-CAZORLA
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16 7
and the Garden of Eden. Isolated in the Atlantic Ocean near Africa, the lush Canary Islands are inhabited
by humble, kind and pleasant people who descend from a noble race.
Tenerife: cultural symbols, myth and identity
Culture is a complex term. For G. Hofstede, the word ‘culture’ has three meanings:
Literally it means tilling the soil: cultivation. Metaphorically the word is used for the training or refin-ing
of the mind: civilization. However, in the past decades a broader metaphorical meaning has become
popular, derived from anthropology: collective ways of acting, thinking, and feeling. ‘Culture’ in this
sense is “the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or cat-egory
of people from others”29.
As a construct, culture is «is not directly accessible to observation but inferable from verbal state-ments
and other behaviours and useful in predicting still other observable and measurable verbal and
nonverbal behaviour»30. In Los símbolos de la identidad canaria, Galván and Estévez defined culture as
…that complex whole that is acquired through learning, that we use as members of a society, and
through which we make decisions, we choose between diferent and often contradictory possibilities.
All human activity is educated, our behaviours are endowed with meaning and ideas about what is right
and what is not, what is reasonable and nonsensical. Culture is a means by which we perceive and value
the human social relationships, and to a large extent it can be considered as a series of symbols that
include acts, behaviours, objects we give meaning to and through which we communicate31.
For the analysis of the cross-cultural encounters between the British protagonist and the Canarian
characters in the texts ofered below, Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory will be used. This
framework for cross-cultural communication describes the efects of a society’s culture on the values of
its members, and how these values are related to their actions. Hofstede stated that diferences between
cultures may be investigated from the perspective of four manifestations of culture: symbols, heroes,
rituals, and values32.
Symbols
According to Hofstede and Hofstede33, «symbols are words, pictures, or objects that carry a particular
meaning only recognized as such by those who share the culture». These symbols, such as slang expres-sions,
dress code, status symbols, and hairstyles can be changed, imitated, and replaced with others. The
most readily discernible symbols are the easiest and the most common way to include some cultural
aspects from the target country in these texts.
The Canarian culture has its own specific symbols even if «globalization favours the adoption of bor-rowed
symbolic references» as Galván and Estévez34 stated:
Our customs, institutions and beliefs are interrelated, forming a symbolic system, because each symbol
makes sense only in relation to the rest of the other symbols. It is an open symbolic system, built over
the centuries, creating and articulating a set of diverse traditions, providing them with a proper sense,
recreating them through our history35.
29 HOFSTEDE (2012), p. 385.
30 LEVITIN, cited in Hofstede and Hofstede’s Research and VSM webpage.
31 GALVÁN & ESTÉVEZ (1997), p. 21.
32 HOFSTEDE (2001), pp. 10-11.
33 HOFSTEDE & HOFSTEDE (2005), p. 7.
34 GALVÁN & ESTÉVEZ (1997), p. 22.
35 GALVÁN & ESTÉVEZ (1997), p. 21.
SÍMBOLOS CULTURALES, MITO E IDENTIDAD EN CUATRO NOVELAS DE FICCIÓN...
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas d 8 e Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16
The dialectal Spanish from the islands, the traditional Canarian house, the typical costumes, the
figure of the traditional peasant, Canarian songs and dances, the various religious pilgrimages to the
churches of the patron saints of the diferent islands, El Teide volcanic mountain, the typical food and
trees such as the juniper, the palm tree, the sacred tree Garoé and the dragon tree are the main symbols
mentioned in these novels, mostly in a superficial way, with no real importance in the plot. In Bitter
Memories and Red Lotus, the protagonists visit Icod and its dragon tree36; in Nurse in Tenerife Trudy’s
friend, Cherry, is given a piece of Canary embroidery as a present37; we also find the typical recipe of
salty pork ribs with potatoes and corn on the cob in Bitter Memories38 as well as the name of places,
the description of the most common crops and fruits, among other cultural references. However, they
are only brief allusions that contribute to create the setting of the novels and provide local atmosphere.
The Spanish of the Canary Islands
According to Gumperz, identity is «in large part established and maintained through language»39 and
Canarian identity is very much related to the dialect. The Spanish of the Canary Islands is «a linguistic
modality that, situated halfway between the Spanish of Spain and that of the Americas, has its own well-defined
personality within the broad range of geographical variation that is Spanish»40. Belonging to
the so-called Atlantic or Southern Spanish, this language variety has many features in common with the
Western Andalusian dialect and the Spanish spoken in Latin America. Their analogies, especially at both
phonetic and grammatical levels, are explained by factors such as the geographical origin of the first
settlers on the islands, and to the close relationship established between the Canary Islands and America,
especially Venezuela and Cuba, through migration41. Many hispanicisms taken from the Spanish variety
spoken in the islands appear in these texts. One of the functions of using these words and expressions is
the establishing of a Canarian identity.
In these four romance novels there is a variety of Spanish words that add both realism and some lo-cal
colour. These words are mainly related to three semantic fields: forms of greetings (such as buenas
noches, adios, hasta la vista, hasta mañana)42, food (such as papas arrugadas, pulpitos, café con leche)43
and places (playa, barranco, hacienda)44. In Bitter Memories there are many terms associated with the
carnival (such as murgas, comparsas, rondallas, reina del carnaval, coso, elección de la reina infantil)45.
Many basic words in Spanish such as señor, señorita, señora or mañana include a palatal nasal sound
transcribed by the graphic sign “ñ” which does not exist in English. In Spanish, a diaeresis marks this
palatal nasal sound but this diaeresis does not appear in Red Lotus or in Meeting in Madrid. In contrast,
Bitter Memories includes short sentences in Spanish and very specific words such as “zafra”, which
refers to the tomato season.
Many of the Spanish words appearing in these books are also used in mainland Spain. On the other
hand, the endearment, “mi niña” (my girl), is a very typical Canarian expression which is nowadays
becoming obsolete. This endearment appears in Bitter Memories, which seems the most realistic novel
of the four at least in terms of Canarian vocabulary and expressions, but Nurse in Tenerife46 is the only
one that explicitly mentions the «quick, breathless Canarian Spanish» of the islands.
36 MAYO (1994), p. 67 & AIRLIE (1978), p. 28.
37 LANE (1978), p. 146.
38 MAYO (1994), p. 104.
39 GUMPERZ (1990), p. 7.
40 SAMPER-PADILLA (2008), p. 161.
41 GONZÁLEZ-CRUZ & VERA-CAZORLA (2011), pp. 16-34.
42 Translated respectively as “good evening and good night”, “goodbye”, “see you soon”, “see you tomorrow”.
43 Translated respectively as “new potatoes cooked in their skin in well-salted water, small squids, and milky coffee”.
44 Translated respectively as “beach”, “ravine”, and “homestead”.
45 Translated respectively as “singing groups”, “carnival groups”, “stringed instrument groups”, “the carnival queen”, “the
parade”, and “the gala to decide on the children’s carnival queen”.
46 LANE (1978), p. 39.
MARÍA JESÚS VERA-CAZORLA
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16 9
El Teide
A powerful symbol of Canarian culture is El Teide mountain peak, which is a volcano on Tenerife
and the highest peak (3,718m) in Spain. According to Criado,
El Teide is the geomorphological element that not only symbolizes the island of Tenerife, but transcends
its boundaries to become a symbol of the archipelago. There are several factors which distinguish El
Teide as a Pan-Canarian symbol; first its dimensions that make it visible from the other islands except
Lanzarote, its position in the centre of the archipelago and its volcanic nature, common to the rest of the
islands. Its altitude makes it the first Canarian territory that can be seen from the sea or from the air, and
it always generates surprise and a sense of homecoming, as we approach the islands47.
For Criado, «unconsciously, we tend to attribute El Teide with a patriarchal personality, to which we
owe respect»48. The mountain is mentioned in all four books. In some cases, it is a way of describing the
protagonist’s arrival and first impressions on the island as in the following quotes:
El Teide is our resident mountain and you can see him a long way of, like a lost pyramid sitting on the
horizon. Look, there he is now, taking shape! Today he has his little cap on his head, but most of the
time he is quite clear!49.
Felicity was still looking at The Peak. The great mountain seemed completely separated from all contact
with the land beneath, isolated beyond its barrier of cloud, aloof and cold even under the flush of sun
on its lofty crest. She could see it, even then, as the spirit of the island, the presence which man looked
at and feared50.
It was a scene straight out of Africa, a sight so surprising, so utterly unexpected to Felicity that she drew
in a long, quivering breath of delight […] El Teide was indeed magnificent. If he was frightening and
remote in some moods, he was kind and wise and gentle, too. His hoary old head rose far into the blue51.
Trudy saw a carpet of cloud below her, and then the volcanic cone of El Teide Mountain with the peak
just covered in snow like a burnt rock-cake sprinkled with icing sugar52.
In other novels, the peak is the background for some adventures of the various main characters. In
Nurse in Tenerife the peak serves as a reminder of a romantic gathering:
Strange how a symbol could trigger of never-to-be-forgotten memories. It was the sight of El Teide
towering high into the blue Tenerife sky that reminded Trudy of the Spanish surgeon’s stolen kisses
when, as her eyes widened in protest, she saw the volcanic peak beyond his head. Hardly anywhere on
the island could she escape that peak, it seemed. Whenever she saw it now turbulent emotions stirred
in her53.
Sometimes El Teide is personified or it reflects the male protagonist’s mood. In Red Lotus, the main
characters recognize its influence on the island:
“However you may come to the islands, it is always El Teide that dominates” […] Felicity was still
looking at The Peak. The great mountain seemed completely separated from all contact with the land
beneath, isolated beyond its barrier of cloud, aloof and cold even under the flush of sun on its lofty crest.
47 CRIADO (1997), p. 525.
48 CRIADO (1997), p. 528.
49 MCLEOD (1979), p. 46.
50 AIRLIE (1958), p. 19.
51 AIRLIE (1958), p. 94.
52 LANE (1978), p. 17.
53 LANE (1978), pp. 142-143.
SÍMBOLOS CULTURALES, MITO E IDENTIDAD EN CUATRO NOVELAS DE FICCIÓN...
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas d 10 e Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16
She could see it, even then as the spirit of the island, the presence which man looked at and feared54.
El Teide dominates the entire island […] You must learn to live with him, to accept him in many moods,
or he will have his own revenge!55.
High above the tableland the great peak looked down on their small company as it wound across the
sand, as remote and unperturbed by their presence as a giant who watches flies crawling at his feet
[…] But today El Teide was smiling. No storm-clouded rufled his brow. The face of the mountain was
serene56.
In Red Lotus, the author gives Philip Arnold many of the qualities of the mountain. Philip is severe
and earnest, but also trustworthy and loyal:
Looking at the dark, closed face and the stern brows drawn above the narrowed blue eyes, she was sud-denly
reminded of the barren places of El Teide, the remote giant of a mountain which stood aloofly
apart from the ordinary doings of mankind57.
In some ways it was the face of El Teide again, the granite countenance crowned by its white cap of
snow, beneath which the ancient volcano slumbered. It was years, Philip Arnold had said, since El Teide
had been in eruption, yet there was still evidence everywhere of the devastating efects of his wrath.
And Philip himself had all the granite qualities of the sleeping giant of a mountain that guarded their
silent valley, the harshness and the domination and the undeniable strength58.
Although the traditional house, the songs and the dances, the food, the dragon tree appear sometimes
in the books, El Teide is the most powerful symbol in the novels set in the island of Tenerife not only
because it is the one that appears most often, but also for its prominent role in every story.
Heroes
According to Hofstede and Hofstede, «heroes are persons, alive or dead, real or imaginary, who
possess characteristics that are highly prized in a culture and thus serve as models for behavior»59. Tra-ditionally,
in this genre the main male character is also the hero. Usually Spaniards personify many of
the positive as well as negative idiosyncrasies of a foreign country. Dark and attractive, too often they
assume a condescending attitude towards the real main character of these four novels. That is, the British
girl who comes to the islands.
In these four novels the male protagonist is associated with typically Spanish values such as the
sense of family obligation (Meeting in Madrid), the inbred Spanish politeness (Red Lotus), the joy of
living and old-fashioned pride, but there is also flattery and in some cases too much boldness. In Nurse
in Tenerife the infatuation of the protagonist comes close to harassment while in Bitter Memories the
protagonist «wondered if all these Canario men were so profuse with their compliments»60. On the other
hand, Red Lotus is the only romance of this group of selected texts with an Englishman as the male pro-tagonist,
while the typical Spanish marquis turns out to be the villain at the end of the story.
54 AIRLIE (1958), pp. 18-19.
55 AIRLIE (1958), p. 19.
56 AIRLIE (1958), p. 97.
57 AIRLIE (1958), p. 26.
58 AIRLIE (1958), p. 45.
59 HOFSTEDE & HOFSTEDE (2005), p. 7.
60 MAYO (1994), p. 52.
MARÍA JESÚS VERA-CAZORLA
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16 11
In the category of heroes, the real Canarian artist César Manrique61 is an atypical one. In the 1994
Bitter Memories, the negative impact of tourism on the islands turns Manrique into a new type of hero,
the advocate of sustainable tourism and of the preservation of the Canarian landscapes against the inva-sion
of mass tourism.
And on an island in the middle of the lake is a subterranean nightclub […] All designed by César Man-rique,
Lanzarote’s celebrated artist and architect. Everything he designs is made to look as natural as
possible; the man’s a genius62.
For Castro Borrego, «until the twentieth century in the Canarian culture there was no artist who acted
as symbolic reference on which to build national identity» 63. Manrique’s impact on daily life and culture
on the islands has been enormous, as before him «the Canarian man, influenced by models of aesthetic
appreciation of European art, did not see in the volcanic landscape surrounding him anything but a
petrified relic of the destruction caused by the eruptions in the past»64. According to this author, «the
fundamental value that César Manrique’s painting transmits is to teach the inhabitants of the islands the
essential beauty of the volcanic landscape that defines the topography of the archipelago»65.
For Manrique, it was vital to see the value of Canarian scenery, as «whoever is blind to the beauty of
a landscape is also blind to the consequences of its destruction. Aesthetics and politics are two dimen-sions
of culture that cannot be separated»66; the artist taught his countrymen to appreciate the natural
surroundings as he «claimed the right of the artist to transform nature […] guided by the purpose not to
compete but to enhance the beauty of the natural landscape»67. In a genre in which the role of the hero
is so noticeable and obvious, it is thought provoking to be able to read about a real hero so committed to
the Canarian culture and identity.
Rituals
The next manifestation of culture in these novels are rituals. «Rituals are collective activities, tech-nically
superfluous to reaching desired ends, but which within a culture are considered as socially
essential»68. They are regarded as “socially essential” because they bind individuals together. Rituals
include not only state or religious ceremonies, but also ways of greeting or showing respect, and behav-iour
patterns in public places or in a business meeting.
One of the key words for this cultural manifestation is “fiesta”. Social gatherings are a significant part
of the social life in the islands in all four novels. As the male protagonist of Red Lotus states, «There
are many fiestas on the island […] We are rarely without one in some town or another during the sum-mer
months»69. This profusion of fiestas must be due, in another character’s words, to «the spontaneous
gaiety of the average Spaniard»70.
Later in the same novel Felicity, his female counterpart, exclaims, «The very word fiesta spells
laughter and gaiety and a sort of careless abandonment to happiness […] There could be nothing quite
like this in England»71. To which the English male protagonist answers, «We are a diferent race, Zamora
is a happy continuation of Andalusia without the hardness that war and religious fanaticism and passion-
61 Artist César Manrique is also mentioned in Margaret Mayo’s Mutual attraction (1990) and Jacqueline Baird’s At the
Spaniard’s Pleasure (2003).
62 MAYO (1994), p. 67.
63 CASTRO BORREGO (1997), p. 387.
64 CASTRO BORREGO (1997), p. 389.
65 CASTRO BORREGO (1997), p. 389.
66 CASTRO BORREGO (1997), p. 389.
67 CASTRO BORREGO (1997), p. 390.
68 HOFSTEDE & HOFSTEDE (2005), p. 8.
69 AIRLIE (1958), p. 66.
70 AIRLIE (1958), p. 9.
71 AIRLIE (1958), p. 114.
SÍMBOLOS CULTURALES, MITO E IDENTIDAD EN CUATRO NOVELAS DE FICCIÓN...
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas d 12 e Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16
ate violence have left in the Andalusian cities»72. That is, Spanish traditions are followed in the islands
without the religious fanaticism and violence associated with some of these traditions.
Although there are private parties in all four books with music and dancing, there are also some refer-ences
to two collective rituals, the Carnival and the feast of Corpus Christi. The Corpus Christi flower
carpets are mentioned casually in Red Lotus and Meeting in Madrid, while Tenerife’s carnival is the con-necting
thread in the plot of Bitter Memories. As a typical inhabitant of Tenerife, the male protagonist
ensures that «Our carnaval is second only to Rio, it is the largest in Europe»73. This festival and its vari-ous
activities, such as the election of both the child and the senior carnival queens, the final grand parade
or “coso” as well as the burial of the sardine74, appear in this novel. The Carnival is the biggest festival
on islands such as Tenerife and Gran Canaria and is considered an expression of cultural identity.
The carnival is a crucial symbol of Canarian culture. For Barreto Vargas, «the carnival allows to
dramatizing symbolically the subversion of what is socially established»75 and he also explains that
…one of the features of the diferent carnivals in the Canaries is the expression of social criticism, either
local, regional or national. […] Subversion rites are essential within the carnival parties as they allow
for the world to be upside down. […] We can distinguish four types of subversion: sex, status, age and
nature76.
Furthermore, in addition to the criticism and the subversion rituals, this author discusses the role of
this “fiesta” to perform rites of ostentation as well as to exhibit ethnic identity:
In the past it was during the Corpus and the Easter processions in the Canaries when neighbours made
use of the event to perform rites of ostentation. At present these festive rituals have moved to the carni-val.
[…] It is about getting the best costume, about sophistication and about group bonding in order to
excel and to give a lesson of elegance and distinction77.
Despite tourism, the Carnival remains an expression of Canarian identity and culture. Well- known
outside the islands, it is a very popular festivity that permeates social and economic differences.
Values
The core of culture, according to Hofstede and Hofstede78, is formed by values; «values are broad
tendencies to prefer certain states of afairs over others». Acquired early in our lives, they determine the
meanings of practices and can be properly interpreted only by the members of a given culture. Depend-ing
on the culture, these preferences –e.g. regarding what is good or evil- are either treated as preferable
or entirely rejected.
A clear value that permeates all four books is that of a close sense of family. In Red Lotus eighteen-year-
old Julio feels that, as his father has just passed away and in spite of his age, he is the head of the
family and that he needs to take charge of his two sisters and control the family business. In Nurse in
Tenerife Dr Miguel Martina tolerates his chaufeur’s misconduct and it is not until the end of the book
that the reader understands his reason when he explains that they are related. The chaufeur is his late
brother’s illegitimate son and he feels he owes it to his brother to help him and his mother. In Meeting
in Madrid there are many references to this sense of family and family obligation. Don Jaime feels mor-
72 AIRLIE (1958), p. 114.
73 MAYO (1994), p. 70.
74 A Spanish ceremony celebrating the end of carnival. The burial generally consists of a carnival parade that parodies a funeral
procession and culminates with the burning of a symbolic figure, usually a representation of a sardine.
75 BARRETO VARGAS (1997), p. 300.
76 BARRETO VARGAS (1997), pp. 300-305.
77 BARRETO VARGAS (1997), p. 304.
78 HOFSTEDE & HOFSTEDE (2005), p. 8.
MARÍA JESÚS VERA-CAZORLA
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16 13
ally obliged to take care of his brother’s family when the latter dies in addition to taking over the family
hacienda; he explains his decision to Catherine:
It was just the natural thing to do. A Spanish family is one unit, whether they are rich or poor, and they
are sheltered by the head of that family. You have to understand that before you can understand me.
Just as our wide Cordoban hat shields a man from the heat of the sun, so I must shelter my family from
misfortune while I can79.
And, as Lucía, his sister-in-law, invested a large sum of money in the state when she married Jaime’s
brother, he feels he has to marry Lucía unless he could pay her back. Later in the novel, he even feels
responsible for Lucía’s mischief when she accuses the Englishwoman of stealing a ring with a ruby. After
discovering the deception and paying the debt to Lucia, Jaime feels happy: «Tired though he undoubtedly
was, he had fulfilled his responsibilities to his family as carefully as he could, providing even for Lucía
until she married for a second time»80.
There are two other values closely related to this sense of family: marrying young and having large
families with many children. In Bitter Memories the protagonist dreams of having four children, three
girls and a boy, as «all Canarian loved children and Alejandro told her that he wanted many»81.
Another value, traditionally associated with Spain as we saw in the section on Spanishness, is that of
religiosity. A perfect example can be seen in Meeting in Madrid when they say grace before dinner and
when a child is praying in Nurse in Tenerife. In Red Lotus, young Sisa keeps a rosary in a velvet box.
Against the Anglo-centric belief that «no fiesta would be complete without the priest presiding at the
table»82, priests are mentioned in only one of these four novels, Red Lotus, when Felicity’s uncle dies
and in the Corpus Christi procession. Religion is not as explicitly mentioned as expected. Perhaps, as the
protagonist in Red Lotus83 remarks about his estate, in the islands we do not find the religious fanaticism
and passionate violence seen in Andalusia.
Finally, among many other values that could be associated with Spain and more specifically with the
Canary Islands, I think it is worth mentioning, even superficially, the concept of time and a second value
that could be called the “joy of living”. Time seems to slow down on the islands. Beyond spending it do-ing
the “siesta” or having a good time at the frequent fiestas, time does not seem to mean as much in the
islands as in Europe. People are not in a hurry and they enjoy more the little moments, as may be seem in
this quotation from Red Lotus: «There was a suggestion of ease about him, of unlimited time to go about
the business of gracious living which she was to encounter, again and again, in the weeks ahead as she
came to understand the Spanish character and delight in it»84. This other quotation from the same novel
reafirms the same idea: «Marta did everything with the unhurried movements of the person to whom
time means nothing at all, and indeed time was often discounted altogether in this enchanted valley»85.
This idea of time is related to the concept of the joy of life that is present one way or another in these
novels. You do not have to be rich or powerful to participate in popular celebrations, to be proud of your
family or your island, to enjoy a good meal with your family and friends. The «spontaneous gaiety of
the average Spaniard»86 is often mentioned, which seems to indicate implicitly that the average English
is not so cheerful. Altogether, and although elements of religious and dark Spain are sometimes men-tioned,
the values traditionally associated with this country are highly appreciated by the English visitor.
79 MCLEOD (1979), p. 164.
80 MCLEOD (1979), p. 188.
81 MAYO (1994), p. 108.
82 GRAFF (1993), p. 51.
83 AIRLIE (1958), p. 114.
84 AIRLIE (1958), p. 6.
85 AIRLIE (1958), p. 60.
86 AIRLIE (1958), p. 9.
SÍMBOLOS CULTURALES, MITO E IDENTIDAD EN CUATRO NOVELAS DE FICCIÓN...
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas d 14 e Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16
Conclusions
The vision of the island of Tenerife portrayed in these four novels changes significantly, in the same
way that the real island has changed itself throughout these nearly forty years between the publication
of Red Lotus (1958) and Bitter Memories (1994). In Red Lotus Tenerife is described as a paradisiacal
island, isolated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, covered with exotic trees and fragrant flowers.
However, the image of the island in this latest novel turns out to be not so idyllic. The protagonist comes
to the island to visit her sister who works in a hotel in the Playa de las Americas and sees first-hand
«the concrete jungle of tourism»87 and the tourists’ «frenetic pace, even though people were supposed
to be on holidays»88. In the two novels published in the 1970s, we see the progressive change of the
island with the arrival of mass tourism and how islanders advise the English protagonist to visit the
real Tenerife. For example, in Meeting in Madrid Teresa, the main male character’s niece, insists: «The
Puerto [de la Cruz] is no longer Tenerife. […] You would not be showing her the true island, only a few
sophisticated hotels»89.
The use of the names of specific places are mostly accurate as are the references to traditional dishes
and the typical crops of tomato, banana, or avocado. Two specific ideas mentioned in Bitter Memories
are also correct; one is that many people do not paint the outside of their houses in some villages in order
to avoid paying taxes; and the other is the opinion that the Canarians’ love for sugar could be due to the
islands’ former sugar trade. The claim that small tomatoes are sent to England because English people
specify they prefer smaller tomatoes, which is also mentioned in Bitter Memories, is also plausible.
However, perhaps due to the general fairy-tale tone and the lack of realism of the stories, the cultural
aspects named in most of these novels seem more anecdotal than true elements of Canarian identity. After
the analysis, I could say that Bitter Memories is fairly well researched; it includes very detailed informa-tion
about the island, the carnival, general customs as well as accurate knowledge about daily life. When
the writer draws the readers’ attention to the fact that Spaniards have two surnames, the order of the sur-names
is correct, that is, the father’s surname is followed by the mother´s; other romance novels mistake
the order of the surnames.
There is first-hand information on whether or not the sand used to fill the Teresitas beach on Tenerife
was brought from what was the Spanish Sahara desert, or the opinion that the island’s capital, Santa
Cruz, is not really beautiful. However, when the male protagonist speaks Spanish, he does it incorrectly
even though he is supposed to be a Spaniard. Red Lotus and Bitter Memories include Hofstede and Hof-stede’s
four manifestations of culture: symbols, heroes, rituals, and values. However in Nurse in Ten-erife
and Meeting in Madrid the information about the island is primarily concerned with the weather,
food, napping, crops, that is, symbols and rituals only. Nevertheless, these two novels do not mention
real values. Somehow, this fact makes these last two books seem more superficial; it is almost as if they
were the equivalent of basic uncomplicated travel guides.
In all four books, the Canarian identity is defined not by what being Canarian is but by what it is not.
It is always compared with the “other”, the Englishwoman protagonist. In these intercultural encounters
we learn that falling in love is English while dancing and complimenting girls is Spanish or Canarian,
that Spanish males are conceited and that while they are on the island, some English people think «long-ingly
of England with its carpeted floors and central heating or cosy coal fires»90. Homesickness for
Great Britain could be due to «the typical English desire for a peaceful atmosphere»91 or because the
female character, conscious of her attraction to the Spaniards, feels she needs to go back home as there
is «a touch of English prude» in her nature92. At the end of the novels, the English protagonist assumes
the advantages of living on the island, she learns to appreciate the values of her lover’s culture, and
becomes a Canarian herself.
87 AIRLIE (1958), p. 37.
88 AIRLIE (1958), p. 37.
89 AIRLIE (1958), p. 54.
90 MAYO (1994), p. 97.
91 AIRLIE (1958), p. 54.
92 LANE (1978), p. 29.
MARÍA JESÚS VERA-CAZORLA
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16 15
Works cited
AIRLIE, C. (1958). Red Lotus. Winnipeg: Harlequin Books.
BARRETO VARGAS, C. M. (1997). «Los Carnavales». In GALVÁN TUDELA, A. et al. (ed.) Los
símbolos de la identidad canaria. La Laguna: Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, pp. 299-306.
BELLO JIMÉNEZ, V. M. (2005). Allende las columnas. La presencia cartaginesa en el Atlántico entre
los siglos VI y III a.C. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Ediciones Anroart.
CABRERA PERERA, A. (1988). Las islas Canarias en el mundo clásico. Madrid: Viceconsejería de
Cultura y Deportes del Gobierno de Canarias.
CASTRO BORREGO, F. (1997). «César Manrique». In GALVÁN TUDELA, A. et al. (ed.) Los símbo-los
de la identidad canaria. La Laguna: Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, pp. 387-390.
CRIADO, C. (1997). «El Teide». In GALVÁN TUDELA, A. et al. (ed.) Los símbolos de la identidad
canaria. La Laguna: Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, pp. 525-529.
ESTÉVEZ GONZÁLEZ, F. (2011). «Guanches, magos, turistas e inmigrantes: canarios en la jaula iden-titaria
». Revista Atlántida, núm.3, pp. 145-172.
GALVÁN GONZÁLEZ, V.; GUTIERREZ, J. I.; MATEO DEL PINO, A.; QUEVEDO GARCÍA, F. J.
& RODRÍGUEZ PÉREZ, O. (2009). Ínsulas forasteras. Canarias desde miradas ajenas. Madrid:
Editorial Verbum.
GONZÁLEZ-CRUZ, M. I. (2002). Notas para una bibliografía inglesa sobre Canarias. Tenerife: Insti-tuto
de Estudios Canarios.
GONZÁLEZ-CRUZ, M. I. (2015). «Love in Paradise: Visions of the Canaries in a Corpus of Popular
Romance Fiction Novels». Oceanide, núm. 7.
GONZÁLEZ-CRUZ, M. I. & VERA-CAZORLA, M. J. (2011). In LORENZO-DUS, N. (ed.). «The
Construction of Canarian Identity in the First Telenovela on Canarian Television». Spanish at Work.
Analysing Institutional Discourse across the Spanish-speaking World. Basingstoke, England: Pal-grave
MacMillan, pp. 16-34.
GONZÁLEZ MÍNGUEZ, M. T. (2010). «Who is More Fragile? A Study of Heroes and Heroines in the
Twentieth Century Romantic Fiction of Mills and Boon». Cuadernos Kóre. Revista de historia y
pensamiento de género, núm. 2 (1), pp. 179-192.
GRAFF, M. L. (1993). Culture Shock! Spain. London: Kuperard.
GUMPERZ, J. J. (1990). Language and Social Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
KAPPLER, C. (1986). Monstruos, demonios y maravillas a fines de la Edad Media. Madrid: Akal.
HOFSTEDE, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and orga-nizations
across nations. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.
HOFSTEDE, G. & HOFSTEDE, G. J. (2005). Cultures and Organizations. Software of the Mind. Lon-don:
McGraw Hill.
HOFSTEDE, G. & HOFSTEDE, G. J. Research and VSM. Accessed from http://geerthofstede.com/
research-and-vsm [October 31, 2016].
HOFSTEDE, G. «National cultures, organizational cultures and the role of management». Values and
Ethics for the 21st Century. BBVA: Openmind, 2012. Accessed from https://www.bbvaopenmind.
com [October 31, 2016].
LANE, P. (1978). Nurse in Tenerife. London: Mills and Boon Limited.
LEE, L. J. (2008). «Guilty Pleasures: Reading Romance Novels as Reworked Fairy Tales». Marvels &
Tales, 1 (22), pp. 52-66. DOI: 10.2307/41388858
MACLEOD, J. S. (1979). Meeting in Madrid. Toronto: Harlequin Books.
MCALEER, J. (1999). Passion’s Fortune: The Story of Mills & Boon. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
MARTÍNEZ HERNÁNDEZ, M. (1992). Canarias en la mitología. Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Cabildo
Insular de Tenerife y Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria.
MARTÍNEZ HERNÁNDEZ, M. (1996). Las islas Canarias de la Antigüedad al Renacimiento. Nuevos
aspectos. Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Cabildo de Tenerife y Centro de Cultura Popular Canaria.
SÍMBOLOS CULTURALES, MITO E IDENTIDAD EN CUATRO NOVELAS DE FICCIÓN...
Anuario de Estudios Atlánticos
ISSN 2386-5571, Las Palmas d 16 e Gran Canaria. España (2018), núm. 64: 064-021 pp. 1-16
MARTÍNEZ HERNÁNDEZ, M. (2002). Las islas Canarias en la Antigüedad clásica: mito, historia
e imaginario. Santa Cruz de Tenerife-Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: Centro de la Cultura Popular
Canaria.
MARTÍNEZ HERNÁNDEZ, M. (2010). «Islas míticas en relación con Canarias». Cuadernos de
Filología Clásica. Estudios griegos e indoeuropeos, núm. 20, pp. 139-158.
MAYO, M. (1994). Bitter Memories. Richmond: Mills and Boon.
O´REILLY, K. (2002). «Britain in Europe/the British in Spain: exploring Britain’s changing relationship
to the other through the attitudes of its emigrants». Nations & Nationalism, núm. 8 (2), pp. 179-193.
PRIETO ARRANZ, J. (2012). «España vista desde dentro y desde fuera. Una aproximación socio-histórica
y cultural a los discursos de identidad nacional». Oceánide, núm. 4.
SAMPER PADILLA, J. A. (2008). «Sociolinguistic aspects of Spanish in the Canary Islands». In-ternational
Journal of the Sociology of Language, núm. 193/194, pp. 161–176. DOI: 10.1515/
IJSL.2008.053
SÁNCHEZ-PALENCIA CARAZO, C. (1987). El discurso femenino de la novela rosa en lengua ingle-sa.
Cádiz: Publicaciones de la Universidad de Cádiz.
SANTANA SANTANA, A. et al. (2002). El conocimiento geográfico de la costa noroccidental de Áfri-ca
en Plinio: la posición de las Canarias. Hildeshein: OLMS.
VÁZQUEZ DE LA TORRE CASTILLO, L. (2012). «Stereotyping Irish Travellers: Popular cultural
identity and ethnocentrism in recent Media». Oceánide, núm. 4.
VIVANCO, L. & KRAMER K. (2010). «There Are Six Bodies in This Relationship: An Anthropologi-cal
Approach to the Romance Genre». Journal of Popular Romance Studies. Accessed from http://
www.jprstudies.org [August 4, 2010].
WENDT, H. (1960). Empezó en Babel. El descubrimiento de los pueblos. Barcelona: Editorial Noguer.
MARÍA JESÚS VERA-CAZORLA