Moratín y la Ilustración: El decoro dieciochesco en la traducción de Hamlet.

Abstract

This paper examines the first direct translation of Hamlet from English to Spanish, by Leandro Fernández de Moratín, published in 1798 with the rise of neoclassical theatre in Spain. In order to establish the level of influence of French canons on the process of translation, the translated text will be analyzed in its internal aspects, comparing the changes made by Moratín with the norms and principles of 18th-century Spanish and French drama, collected in Ignacio de Luzán’s Poética. In addition, a parallel descriptive study of the sociocultural context of the Spanish Enlightenment will allow us to obtain a general view of the translation’s determinants, such as the translator’s career-his work as playwright and intellectual, his work as translator, his stay in London-, or the position his Spanish Hamlet occupies in the context of drama production and translation in the Spanish Enlightenment.