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Spectator periodicals contributed to spreading the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, a turning point in human history and the foundation of our modern societies. In this work, we study the spirit and atmosphere captured in the spectator periodicals about important social issues from the 18thcentury by analyzing text sentiment of those periodicals. Specifically, based on a manually annotated corpus of over 3 700 issues published in five different languages and over a period of more than one hundred years, we conduct a three-fold sentiment analysis: First, we analyze the development of sentiment over time as well as the influence of topics and narrative forms on sentiment. Second, we construct sentiment networks to assess the polarity of perceptions between different entities, including periodicals, places and people. Third, we construct and analyze sentiment word networks to determine topological differences between words with positive and negative polarity allowing us to make conclusions on how sentiment was expressed in spectator periodicals.Our results depict a mildly positive tone in spectator periodicals underlining the positive attitude towards important topics of the Age of Enlightenment, but also signaling stylistic devices to disguise critique in order to avoid censorship. We also observe strong regional variation in sentiment, indicating cultural and historic differences between countries. For example, while Italy perceived other European countries as positive role models, French periodicals were frequently more critical towards other European countries. Finally, our topological analysis depicts a weak overrepresentation of positive sentiment words corroborating our findings about a general mildly positive tone in spectator periodicals.We believe that our work based on the combination of the sentiment analysis of spectator periodicals and the extensive knowledge available from literary studies sheds interesting new light on these publications. Furthermore, we demonstrate the inclusion of sentiment analysis as another useful method in the digital humanist’s distant reading toolbox.

L’objectif de cet article est d’étudier le discours sur l’identité nationale dans les spectateurs espagnols et francophones. Ce genre journalistique littéraire est né en Angleterre au début du XVIIIe siècle et a été diffusé dans le monde occidental. Il sert de laboratoire littéraire aux auteures et auteurs ainsi qu’aux lecteurs et anticipe les stratégies littéraires qui marqueront le développement du roman au XIXe siècle. Sur un ton agréable et à l’aide de micro-narrations montrant la vie quotidienne, les auteures et auteurs des périodiques disséminent les nouvelles normes sociales des Lumières auprès de la bourgeoisie émergente. Dans cet article, nous allons donc d’abord traiter brièvement des caractéristiques des spectateurs. Ensuite, nous examinerons le cadre idéologique du discours sur l’identité nationale au XVIIIe siècle et la relation étroite entre l’historiographie et la narration. Enfin, nous verrons à quel moment historique et avec quels dispositifs discursifs l’identité nationale est traitée dans les spectateurs espagnols et francophones. El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo abordar el estudio de los discursos sobre la identidad nacional en la prensa espectatorial española y francófona. Este género periodístico-literario nace en Inglaterra al inicio del sigo XVIII y se emula en todo el mundo occidental. A autoras y autores, al igual que al público lector, les sirve de laboratorio literario y anticipa estrategias literarias que marcarán el desarrollo de la novela en el siglo XIX. En un tono ameno y sirviéndose de micronarraciones sobre la vida cotidiana, los autoras y autores de dichos periódicos divulgan las nuevas normas sociales de la Ilustración en la burguesía. En este artículo, en primer lugar abordaremos, pues, brevemente las características de la prensa espectatorial. Después, examinaremos el marco ideológico del discurso sobre la identidad nacional en el siglo XVIII y la estrecha relación entre la historiografía y el acto narrativo. Finalmente, veremos en qué momento histórico y con qué recursos discursivos se trata la identidad nacional en la prensa espectatorial española y francófona. The aim of this paper is to study discourses on national identity in the Spanish and francophone spectatorial press. This literary-journalistic genre was initiated in England at the beginning of the 18th century and was emulated throughout Europe. It serves as a literary laboratory for authors and the reading public and anticipates literary strategies that will mark the development of the novel in the 19th century. In a pleasant tone and using micro-narrations about everyday life, the authors of these periodicals spread the new social norms of the Enlightenment among the emerging bourgeoisie. So, in this article, we will first briefly discuss the characteristics of the Spectator press. We will then examine the ideological framework of the discourse on national identity in the eighteenth century and the close relationship between historiography and the narrative act. Finally, we will see at what historical moment and with which discursive resources national identity is treated in the Spanish and francophone Spectator periodicals.