From littérature engagée to engaged translation : staging Jean-Paul Sartre’s theatre as a challenge to Franco’s rule in Spain

The practice of creating translations that ‘rouse, inspire, witness, mobilize, and incite to rebellion’ is described by Maria Tymoczko, following Jean-Paul Sartre's littérature engagée, as ‘engaged translation’. In Spain, under the Franco dictatorship (1939–1975), the theatre became a site of opposition to his rule and the creation of ‘engaged’ translations of foreign plays was one of the ways in which alternative social and political realities were transmitted to local audiences. This was particularly evident during the so-called apertura period (1962–1969), when Spain's political leaders embraced more liberal and outward-facing cultural policies as part of their efforts to ensure the regime's continuity. Drawing on archival evidence from the state censorship files held at Archivo General de la Administración (AGA) in Alcalá de Henares, this article considers how ‘engaged’ translations of Sartre's theatre were employed as instruments of cultural opposition to the Spanish dictatorship. It also argues that an analysis of the files both helps us to understand the role of censorship in shaping an official version of the past, and shines a light on the memory of a little-studied aspect of cultural activism in the Spanish theatre.PostprintPeer reviewe

Le théâtre de la politique

C’est Sartre qui parle, le Sartre 1947, celui de Qu’est‐ce que la littérature ? – le Sartre que l’on a peut‐être aujourd’hui le plus de satisfaction à suivre. (Situations II, p. 306. Cité par Julia Kristeva.) Le centenaire de 2005 a révélé que Sartre reste toujours l’objet vivant d’une polémique, que ce nom recouvre un homme et une pensée à attaquer, parce que, finalement, comme il le disait, « l’intelligence offense ». Les attaques, nous le savons bien, portent sur deux points, surtout : l’attitude de Sartre sous l’Occupation (on lui reproche somme toute de ne pas avoir résisté les armes à la main) et sa compromission avec les communistes dans les années 1950