Extract

KU Leuven

Abstract: The main question we address in this contribution is whether the prologue that the Spanish writer and literary critic Emilia Pardo Bazán wrote for the Spanish translation of the French novel Ramuntxo by Pierre Loti can be read as a literary manifesto. It turns out that two versions of the novel saw the light in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century: one by H. Medinaveitia for the newspaper ABC in 1906 and another (or the same, heavily reworked) translation in book form, published after 1908. This book opens with a prologue by Pardo Bazán and also the translation proper has often been attributed to her. Contrary to what is the case with her preface of Les frères Zemganno, by E. de Goncourt, the preface of Ramuncho cannot be read as a literary manifesto instructing the reader on Pardo Bazán’s literary convictions. Instead, she praises the idyllic rural setting of the novel. In her own short stories, however, her view of the Galician countryside is anything but idyllic.

Keywords: Spain, 19th century, 20th century, novel, Pierre Loti, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Ramuntcho

En esta contribución, nos proponemos plantear la pregunta de si el prólogo que Emilia Pardo Bazán antepuso a la traducción de la novela Ramuntcho de Pierre Loti (1897), puede considerarse como un manifiesto literario relacionado con su propia obra narrativa. Pero antes de entrar en materia, conviene situar...