Translators of Chinese Literature: A Glimpse of the Recent Translation History and Chinese Literature Research in Spain

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to offer an overview of Chinese literature studies in Spain through the lens of the recent history of translation. The paper addresses three gaps in this field: There are few publications about the history of translations of Chinese literature in Spain; these publications are mostly in Spanish; and scant attention has been paid to translators. To do so, after an introduction to Spanish speaking translators of Chinese literature, the first part of this paper presents a short biography of six Spanish translators (Marcela de Juan, Laureano Ramírez Bellerín, Alicia Relinque Eleta, Gabriel García- Noblejas Sánchez-Cendal, Anne-Hélène Suárez Girard and Carles Prado Fonts) and offers an overview of the translations that they published between 1945 and 2015. The second part of the paper examines the features of Chinese literature research and publishing in Spain and builds connections between these two areas: The academic sphere and the translation publishing sphere. The three features discussed in this second section include: the lack of specialisation and fluidity of disciplinary boundaries between classical and modern literature, the youth of the discipline and the lack of collaboration between publishers and scholars. Data for this paper has been drawn from the Spanish ISBN database, paratexts of translations, university websites, publishers' websites, interviews with translators and publishers conducted between 2008 and 2012, as well as personal experience in the field. The features of the field described in this paper point to challenges and opportunities that Spanish scholars and translators working on Chinese literature have to deal with.