Action and the Modern Self in Vicente García de la Huerta’s Raquel

This paper explores the creative role of action in Vicente García de la Huerta’s Raquel, revealing it as the product of a transnational intellectual experience of modern subjectivity. Through a consideration of the extent to which being enlightened and being modern are intimately connected but also different concepts, it argues that the play reflects the hopes, tensions and contradictions of the Spanish Enlightenment. A work known for its expression of racist and misogynistic views, on the one hand, it can be seen as firmly rooted in the past. Yet on the other, it also reveals an uncanny conception of the potential of individual agency.