On this website we publish the results of the CSIC I+D research project ‘150 years of literary translation in Uruguay (1871-2021)’ (Udelar, Uruguay). You will find an open database to consult literary works translated into Spanish and published in Uruguayan cities between 1871 and 2021, as well as visualizations of various phenomena.
Names of the most frequent translators in the survey
Why are we researching literary translation in Uruguay?
Literary translation is one of the central practices of culture despite its invisibilisation in the fields of literary studies, language and literature teaching, history and media criticism.
In order to measure its relevance in our country, we needed a database displaying translations published in Uruguayan cities since 1871. This database, available here, is now open access and allows us to analyse who has translated, which languages and which authors have been included, and which publishing houses have worked with translations, among other questions. We hope this information that we have collected, curated and are now sharing can serve as a basis for new approaches to the subject.
Pioneering women
Did you know that the first literary translation by a woman mentioned in the catalogue of the National Library of Uruguay is in fact a collective translation?
Blackout?
Did you know that during the military dictatorship there was a remarkable increase in the publication of translations in our country?
On the rise
Did you know that over the last three decades there has been a steady increase in the number of literary translations in Uruguay, mostly by large publishing groups (conglomerates)?
La primera
Did you know that the most translated language is English, followed by French, Portuguese, German and Italian?
Oh là là
Did you know that between 1991 and 2015 Trilce publishing house released more than 30 literary translations from French?
Elemental and Emmenthal
Did you know that in 2009 there were eight translations of Conan Doyle published in Colonia Suiza?
Some visualizations
In the following stories, you will see the data curated by our team on the number of translations, the languages from which they were translated and the publishers involved in the history of literary translation in Uruguay.
Literary translations published since 1871
- Two peaks in the publication of translations: in the 1970s, during the military dictatorship, and in the last decade, by the large publishing groups (conglomerates)
- The source languages have fluctuated over time, with English predominating today.
- The most significant information gap concerns translators, who are not always accredited for their work (although more and more of them are)
The most translated languagues
- En Uruguay se han publicado traducciones de veintinueve lenguas desde 1871
- English and French are the most translated languages, for different reasons, followed by Portuguese
- The real diversification of languages in translation took place in the 1970s
Types of publishers providing translations
- Small and medium-sized publishers have published the most translations
- Conglomerates have dominated translation publishing in recent decades
- In this paper we explain the classification used to analyse the data
History of Translation + Literary Translation + Digital Humanities