TRANSLATIO
The translation of the classics and Spanish literature in the mode
At the intersection of the history of translation and the history of literature in modern Spain, this study looks at the foreign texts which, through translation, have been incorporated into the Spanish literary heritage: On the one hand, works that render Greek and Latin texts into Spanish, thus incorporating canonical works from classical antiquity into the modern language; on the other, those that take contemporary works, whether neo-Latin or other vernacular, as their starting point, assimilating them into the canon instituted by classical literature and reading them as modern classics. Translation brings together these two types of ‘classics’ to make them models for Castilian literature from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. We are therefore interested in literary translations, which cover not only poetry and narrative and dramatic fiction, but also what in modern times was known as eloquence, and which includes historians, moralists, preachers and philosophers. On the basis of the corpus thus defined, we intend to observe the phenomenon of translation through its effects on the target language and its literature, whose rules and canons exert a normative action on the translation while at the same time being influenced by it. The philological and historical study of a series of cases will enable us to compare the practice and theory of translation and to question the blurred and fertile boundaries between translation and creation.
As part of the programme, two conferences will be held in Madrid, one devoted to the exercise of ‘retranslating’ the same work (2024), the other to the border writings of translation: glosses, paraphrases and commentaries (2026). At the same time, a bimodal seminar will be held in Paris (ENS Ulm) and online to immerse us in the laboratory of translation and its links with vernacular literary creation (2025-2026). This work will feed into the Translatio database, which will record the corpus uncovered.
Partners institutions:
École normale supérieure -PSL
Sorbonne Université-CLEA
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
The City University of New York
Université Paul Valéry de Montpellier
Project coordinators:
Roland Béhar (École normale supérieure-PSL)
Mercedes Blanco (Sorbonne Université-CLEA)
Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Adrián Izquierdo (The City University of New York)
Aude Plagnard (Université Paul Valéry de Montpellier)
Team members:
Helena Aguilà Ruzola (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Antonio Alvar (Universidad de Alcalá)
Tatiana Alvarado Teodorika (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Hélio J.S. Alves (Universidade de Lisboa)
Juan Luis Arcaz (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Andrea Baldissera (Università degli studi del Piemonte Orientale)
Lucia Binotti (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina)
Elvezio Canonica (Université Bordeaux Montaigne)
Alejandro Cantarero de Salazar (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Daria Castaldo (Sapienza Università di Roma)
Abigail Castellano López (Universidad de Sevilla)
Juan David Castro de Castro (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Pedro Conde Parrado (Universidad de León)
Muriel Elvira (Université de Nantes)
Francisco Javier Escobar Borrego (Universidad de Sevilla)
Samuel Fasquel (Université d’Orléans)
Alfredo Fraschini (Universidad de Villa María)
Lúa García Sánchez (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela)
Luis Gómez Canseco (Universidad de Huelva)
Theodora Grigoriadou (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Francisco Lafarga (Universitat de Barcelona)
Corinne Mencé-Caster (Sorbonne Université)
Fernando Navarro Antolín (Universidad de Huelva)
Marie-Églantine Lescasse (Université de Caen)
Saúl Martínez Bermejo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
José María Micó (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona)
Alicia Morales Ortiz (Universidad de Murcia)
Juan Ramón Muñoz Sánchez (Universidad de Jaén)
Jonathan O’Conner (St. Olaf College)
Fernando Pancorbo (Universidad de Basilea)
Joaquín Pascual Barea (Universidad de Cádiz)
Luis Pegenaute (Universitat de Barcelona)
María Jesús Pérez Ibáñez (Universidad de Valladolid)
Paolo Pintacuda (Università di Pavia)
Jesús Ponce Cárdenas (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Germán Redondo Pérez (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
José María Rico (Universidad de Huelva)
Hélène Rabaey (Université Le Havre - Normandie)
Antonio Río Torres-Murciano (UNAM)
María Teresa Santamaría (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha)
Juan Miguel Valero Moreno (Universidad de Salamanca)
Ana Vian (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Julian Weiss (King’s College London)
Maria Zerari (Sorbonne Université)
Image legend:
Reverso de una tapicería de F. Damoiselet, Les Jeux d’enfants – Les Bulles de savon (XVIIIe s.), detalle. (Imagen amablemente cedida por Arnaud Denis, Paris, Collection Mobilier national)
