28(2) - 2016

Jane Austen through Francoist customs: What censorship files can tell about the publishing world of the First Francoism (1936-1959)

Isis Herrero López

Title

Jane Austen through Francoist customs: What censorship files can tell about the publishing world of the First Francoism (1936-1959)

Abstract

The present paper analyses the daily reality of the publishing world during the First Francoism (1936-1959), just after the Dictatorship’s censorship board was established. To do so, I focus on the censorship files of Jane Austen, an author who did not represent any danger for the Francoist ideology. The examination of Austen’s publication history during the period is carried out in relation to the ideological stances of the censors and the translation agents dealing with the translations of her novels: I analyse the image that these agents constructed of Austen both during the translation and the censorship process. I also study the strategies used by the translators and editors when submitting Austen’s books to the censorship board in order to understand her constant success in being approved for publication. By means of this analysis, I emphasize the complexity of the Francoist censorship: in addition to being composed of multiple layers of private and public agencies and ideologies, the censorship is also described as a systematised apparatus characterised by its bureaucratic course of action. In addition, the importance of self-censorship is highlighted as an active measure taken by authors/translators and editors, and performed in different forms even in Austen’s translated novels.

Keywords

Censorship and self-censorship, literary translation, First Francoism, Jane Austen

DOI 10.17462/para.2016.02.05

October 17, 2016
  28(2) - 2016