Contrasting with the customary substantialist approaches on the idea of regional literature, this work chooses to ask how the idea of region-a fundamentally heteronomous and unstable notion-functions and has functioned in the literary ambit from a historiographic point of view. In order to achieve this, the study begins with the Iberian situation, emphasizing a comparatist perspective, and moves on to a brief commentary on two concrete situations. The first of these refers to an exemplary case regarding the complexity and historical density of the regional category: a vision we are given by perhaps the nineteenth century's most eminent scholar on Spanish culture, Marcelino Menendez Pelayo. The second refers to the influence and international character of the concept of literary regionalism, with particular attention to the comparative situation of Spain and France at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Lastly, the reflection moves towards a consideration of the consequences that categorical considerations, like the regional in this case, have for acting models of literary historiography.
