Linguistic Contact Effects in the Versions and Translations to Spanish of Fontenelle’s «Nouveaux dialogues des morts» (1683) in the 18th and the 19th Centuries

Abstract

The Nouveaux dialogues des morts by Fontenelle is a text within the tradition of the dialogues of the deads by Lucian of Samosata. They were published for the first time in 1683, with a great immediate success and an outstanding influence in the 18th century (Andries 2013). Its last translator to Spanish, Pilar Blanco García (2010), believed that her transalation was the only one besides an anonymous one published in 1936 (Madrid: SGEL). Nevertheless, there are at least two previous versions to Spanish: a partial and amplified by Francisco Sobrino (1708), like dialogue number 11 between Cortés and Moctezuma (transmitted to the Dominican manuscript by Peguero 1762-173), and another one, full and manuscript by Manuel Pérez Ramajo (c. 1825), which contains a prologue by the own translator explaining his translation theory (cfr. Sáez Rivera 2015a). We will focus in this article in the translation by Ramajo, but establishing its relationship with the translation theory of the time, in order to a better understanding of the language and translation options chosen. Furthermore, we will give some hints about some later discourse traditions of the satyre in the verve of Lucian-Fontenelle and the French crave.