Between creation and rewriting

The trilingual literary practice of Cecilia Böhl (Fernán Caballero)

Abstract

In this article we examine texts that Cecilia Böhl wrote in the 1820-1849 period, before the publication of her works under the pseudonym of Fernán Caballero from 1849 onwards. We focus on the process of rewriting of a same storyline from autographs in French, Spanish and German («Le laïc», Carmela, «der idiot» [sic]) of the first half of the nineteenth century to the published work in 1862 (Pobre de espíritu y rico de corazón). The rewriting process of this text in three languages denotes a willingness of the author to adapt to her public and reveals the multilingual literary conversations that she establishes with two figures during the production stages: Francisca Larrea and Nikolaus Heinrich Julius. The trajectory of this story through four texts in differrent languages shows the creative persistency of the author during more than thirty years.