Traducir como práctica cultural. Tertulias, academias y traducción en la España del siglo XVIII

Abstract

Contrary to the received view of translating as an ascetic activity, this paper examines translation as a collective practice in the 18th century. The paper discusses both historical and fictitious tertulias and focuses on two projects of founding a translators' academy (Iriarte, Joseph Vargas Ponce). It deals with forms of sociability which —by practicing, criticizing and reflecting on translation— intend to elucidate complex topics of the (inter)cultural definition of their own nation and to influence this definition as a part of the consolidating república de las letras. The translations indicate a controversial cultural change of course which is connected with the problematic nature of translation: Feijoo (and his adaptations from French) with regard of the European Enlightenment and its critical reception in Spain, Gracián (and his Italian translation) with regard to a poetic reorientation towards a kind of neoclassicism also influenced by Italy. The same applies to the translators' academy of Alfons the Sage which is reactivated as a model of a translators' academy under state control. The tertulia as a voluntary form of association based on hospitality and sociable communication turns out to be a model of intercultural exchange marked by the Enlightenment.