Cover not available

In:Interconnecting Translation Studies and Imagology
Edited by Luc van Doorslaer, Peter Flynn and Joep Leerssen
[Benjamins Translation Library 119] 2016
► pp. 37–52

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

The adventures of an Amsterdam Spaniard

Nation-building in a 17th-century Dutch pseudo-translation

Published online: 25 February 2016
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.119.03rod
Translations are not produced in a void, but in a continuum of textual and extra-textual constraints. The history of translation is rich in examples of the ways translation can be used in the service of ideological agendas. Particularly interesting is the genre of pseudo-translations, since they attempt to match the existing images and expectations of their readers, while engaging with contemporary discourses. In the context of the Eighty Years’ War between the Dutch Republic and the Spanish monarchy (1568–1648), it is not a coincidence that translator and pseudo-translator G. De Bay decided to use this recent period of Dutch history in his pseudo-translations (1658, 1671). In his On the Hell and Purgatory of the world or The Life of the Amsterdam Spaniard (1671), De Bay plays with and perpetuates images about a past that were shared by his audience and that were starting to become a ‘national’ past. To attract his readers’ attention, he presented his works as translations from the Spanish to give them an air of mystery, since they were supposed to have been written by the old enemy. His imitation of the successful Spanish genre of the picaresque novel was also a successful narrative strategy since this genre was much liked among the Dutch public and presented – when taken literally – a negative image of the Spaniards and their country. Literary works such as those by De Bay render the origin of collective national identities tangible, since we know that a collective sense of identity is derived from shared historical awareness.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The Amsterdam Spaniard: The plot
  • The Amsterdam Spaniard: An example of translation
  • The Amsterdam Spaniard: An example of pseudo-translation
  • National images in the context of the Dutch revolt
  • Conclusion: Forging national images and a national past
  • Notes
  • References
References (31)
References
Bassnett, Susan. 2011. “The translator as cultural mediator.” In The Oxford Handbook of Translation Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beller, Manfred, and Leerssen, Joep. 2007. Imagology. The Cultural Construction and Literary Representation of National Characters. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Burke, Peter. 2007. “Cultures of Translation in Early Modern Europe.” Cultural Translation in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Peter Burke, and R. Po-Chia Hsia, 7–38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Bay, G. 1658. ‘t Leven en Bedrijf van Duc D’Albas Hondt; en ‘t Pirinesche Tooverhol. Amsterdam: Evert Nieuwenhof.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1669. Het leven en bedrijf van de drollige Bisschayer. Amsterdam: Baltes Boekholt.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Groot, Jerome. 2010. The historical novel. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ebben, Maurits, et al. (eds.). 2013. Alba. General and Servant to the Crown. Rotterdam: Karwansaray. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eire, Carlos M.N. 2007. “Early modern Catholic piety in translation.” In Cultural Translation in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Peter Burke, and R. Po-Chia Hsia, 83–100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gruzinski, Serge. 2009. “Babel en el siglo XVI. La mundialización y globalización de las lenguas.” In Un mundo sobre papel. Libros y grabados flamencos en el imperio hispanoportugués (siglos XVI–XVIII), ed. by Werner Thomas, and Eddy Stols, 23–37. Leuven: Acco.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hermans, Theo. 1996. Door eenen engen hals. Nederlandse beschouwingen over vertalen 1550–1670. The Hague: Stichting Bibliographia Neerlandica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Horst, Daniel. 2003. De Opstand in zwart-wit: propaganda uit de Nederlandse Opstand (1566–1648). Zutphen: Walburg Pers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Juderías, Julián. 2007. La leyenda negra. Madrid: Atlas.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lechner, Jan. 2001. Repertorio de obras de autores españoles en bibliotecas holandesas hasta comienzos del siglo XVII. Utrecht: Hes & Graaf Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lefevere, André, and Susan Bassnett. 1998. “Where are we in Translation Studies?” In Constructing Cultures. Essays on Literary Translation, ed. by Susan Bassnett, and André Lefevere, 1–11. Clevedon: Cromwell Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leerssen, Joep. 1999. National thinking in Europa. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moser, Nelleke. 1994. “Overdroomde dromen. Een onderzoek naar een zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlandse vertaling van Quevedo’s Sueños. Met een voorlopige bibliografie van vertalingen en navolgingen van Sueños in Europa gedurende de 17de en de 18de eeuw.” Unpublished MA-thesis Utrecht University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Praag, J.A. Van. 1931. “Nederlandsche vertalingen van novellen van Juan Pérez de Montalbán.” Neophilologus XVI: 9–11. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rodríguez Pérez, Yolanda (ed.). 1997. De hond van de hertog van Alva. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Querido.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008a. The Dutch Revolt through Spanish Eyes. Self and Other in historical and literary texts of Golden Age Spain (circa 1548–1673). Oxford/Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008b. “El perro del Duque de Alba: Un reflejo cervantino en la literatura de los Países Bajos.” In V Centenario del Nacimiento del III duque de Alba Fernando Álvarez de Toledo: Actas, ed. by Gregorio del Ser Quijano, 737–744. Ávila: Institución Gran Duque de Alba.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. “G. de Bay, un traductor de Cervantes del siglo XVII como agente de la memoria histórica neerlandesa.” In Agentes e identidades en movimiento: España y los Países Bajos, siglos XVI–XVIII, ed. by Rene Vermeir, Maurits Ebben, and Raymond Fagel, 403–422. Madrid: Silex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Op Spaanse leest geschoeid. Het verleden in zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlandse romans.” De Zeventiende Eeuw. Cultuur in de Nederlanden in interdisciplinair perspectief, 2, 263–280.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rodríguez Pérez, Yolanda, Antonio Sánchez Jiménez and Harm den Boer (eds.). 2015. España ante sus críticos: Claves de la Leyenda Negra. Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruíz Pérez, Pedro. 2010. Historia de la Literatura Española (3). El Siglo del arte nuevo 1598–1691. Madrid: Crítica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Samson, Alexander. 2014. “Maybe Exemplary? James Mabbe’s Translation of the Exemplarie Novells (1640).” Republic of Letters, A journal for the study of Knowledge, Politics and the Arts, vol. 4, 2, 1–16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Terlingen, Johannes Hermanus. 1956. “Un hispanista neerlandés del siglo XVII, Guilliam de Bay.” In 1930–1955. Homenaje a J.A. van Praag, 123–137. Groningen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Toury, Gideon. 1985. “Translation, Literary Translation and Pseudo-translation.” Comparative Criticism 6: 73–85.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Velasco Kindelán, M. 1983. La novela cortesana y picaresca de Castillo Solórzano. Valladolid: Institucion Cultural Simancas.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vles, J. 1926. Le roman picaresque hollandais des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles et ses modèles espagnols et francais. The Hague: Papier-centrale Tripplaar.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vosters, Simon A. 1955. Spanje in de Nederlandse literatuur. Amsterdam: H.J. Paris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Blom, Frans
2020. Enemy Treasures : The Making and Marketing of Spanish Comedia in the Amsterdam Schouwburg. In Literary Hispanophobia and Hispanophilia in Britain and the Low Countries (1550-1850), DOI logo
Rodríguez Pérez, Yolanda
2020. Introduction: On Hispanophobia and Hispanophilia across Time and Space. In Literary Hispanophobia and Hispanophilia in Britain and the Low Countries (1550-1850), DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue