La traducción como manipulación historiográfica en el exilio: análisis paratextual e intertextual de La Guerra Civil española de Hugh Thomas

Abstract

This paper explores how the Spanish translation of Hugh Thomas’s The Spanish Civil War was appropriated by Editions Ruedo iberico in order to rewrite a series of crucial episodes and details of the conflict, such as the origins of the war, and the estimates of casualties. By drawing an intertextual and paratextual comparison between both versions – in English and Spanish – evidence is provided of how a series of passages have been manipulated in the translation. Such translation shifts follow an ideological pattern that benefits the Republican side. Also, the article shows how the Spanish translation differs from the original text in English in terms of objectivity. The results of the analysis provide evidence of translation shifts and manipulation in the Spanish version of a referential work, such as The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas. Accordingly, a historiographical revision of the conflict is required.