Ideological Constraints and French Mediation in Hispanic Translated Texts: 1860-1930

Abstract

Recent translation theories and descriptive translation studies emphasize the power of translated texts as shaping forces in literary canons as well as the ideological appropriation which the works of translators conceal. French cultural ascendancy in eighteenth and nineteenth century Spain is widely acknowledged, especially in the case of the reception of English, German and Russian literature. However, apart from early research in the field of literary comparativism, French mediation in translation has received inadequate attention in Spanish speaking countries. In this article we intend to analyse the ideological manipulation traced in three Hispanic versions of W.M. Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (1847-48) published between 1860 and 1930, which used the 1853 French translation of the Victorian classic as their source text. Particular consideration will be given to those conflictual translated texts concerning the sexual role of the main male and female characters which wipe out the ambiguity of the original work.