Spain. 19th century

Abstract

The history of translation in 19th century Spain is characterized above all by the fact that it was a period of transition between the concept of translation effective prevalent in the 18th century – restricted to the country's cultural elites – and the contemporary concept, which developed mainly from the second half of the 19th century onwards and continued into the 20th century. In the 19th century, the bourgeoisie embraced culture to an ever-greater extent, increasing public awareness of translations and, consequently, of translators. Thus, the notion that translations 'improved' the originals in order to adapt them to neoclassical norms gradually lost ground over the course of the century. On the other hand, there are other specific areas of research into the history of translation in Spain in the 19th century, some of which merit greater attention from researchers. These include, inter alia, the relationship between translation and exile, especially in the first decades of the century; the disappearance in practice of editorial censorship in the second half of the century and, consequently, the end of self-censorship; the progressive dignification of the status of the translator, prompted by the intellectual protection of authors' and translators' rights on an international scale; the deliberate use of translation as a vehicle for the transmission of new political, artistic and scientific ideas and, lastly, the decisive increase in literacy rates in the Spanish population, which turned literature into a consumer product. Finally, in the 19th century the Spanish translation industry experienced a gradual decline in the almost monopolistic influence that French culture and French as a source language had exerted upon it ever since the 18th century, from the arrival of the Bourbon dynasty onwards.