Gothics, translators and exiles. The literature about the Spanish Inquisition in England (1811-1827)

Abstract

During the first third of the 19th century, the literature on the Spanish Inquisition had a major boost thanks to the freedom of press and the contemporary political situation, I which the Inquisition was a crucial issue. Those who were exiled in 1814 and 1823, and took to England their political activity, faced a literary market where the inquisitorial theme was popular thanks to the Gothic novel and the protestant propaganda. With this article we intend to focus on the way in which the exiled writers in England continued their fight against the Inquisition, adapting he classic arguments of the Spanish liberalism against the Tribunal to a market where the literary representations of the Inquisition was linked to certain ideological and stylistic expectations in the reader.