Description

August Wilhelm Schlegel's translation of 'La devoción de la Cruz', part of a series of works by Calderón which he published between 1803 and 1809 under the title 'Spanisches Theater', was integral to the early German Romantic apotheosis of Golden Age Spain. The 1803 first edition of 'Die Andacht zum Kreuze' was warmly received by major writers including Goethe (who was privy to the manuscript prior to publication) and Schiller, as well as other early German Hispanists and translators such as Keil and Gries. Schlegel's translation, in conjunction with his aesthetic and literary criticism (in particular the attention paid to Calderón in the 'Wiener Vorlesungen' of 1809), helped to revive European interest in Spanish letters after a long period of neglect, not least in Spain itself. The translation into German of this and other works by Calderón, along with that of other key Spanish writers such as Cervantes and Lope de Vega, helped to re-establish Spain's Golden Age writers at the heart of the European canon. This volume will explore the impact and success of Schlegel's work as a translator by placing his work in its literary-historical context and, for the first time, comparing his translation with Calderón's original.