Extract

Universidad de León

Abstract: The English gothic novel retained its basic structural conventions when transferred into other literary contexts, but some its most defining characteristics had to be modified and readapted by the target cultural system. The Spanish gothic narrative reformulates the English pattern by including didactic morality, the exaltation of religion, the pursuit of verisimilitude and realism as well as the constant presence of the macabre element. The transformation is epitomized in the translation of William H. Ireland’s The Abbess: a Romance. Under the scrutiny of censorship, the original text suffered mutilations as well as modifications by introducing new elements. The new text established the paradigm of the Spanish gothic novel anticipating the subsequent Romantic movement.

Keywords: Spain, 19th century, translation, novel, William H. Ireland

Asumida la presencia de una corriente de novela gótica en España,1 cultivada en los años treinta del siglo XIX, existe una etapa previa de traducciones especialmente prolija e intensa y sorprendentemente productiva, aunque tardía si se compara con el resto de Europa, que abarcó un amplio período de tres décadas, aproximadamente, desde el cambio de siglo hasta el fin del reinado de Fernando VII. Esta fase fijó unas características, que supusieron la consolidación del género, en consonancia con las establecidas en origen, pero asociadas a otras novedosas que vinieron a enriquecer la fórmula de la exitosa ← 267 | 268 →novela gótica inglesa y que...