De redes, pedagogía y autoridad femenina en la España de Fernando VI: el Modo de enseñar, y estudiar las Bellas Letras de María Catalina de Caso (1755)

Abstract

Throughout 1755, a novel author, María Catalina de Caso, translated into Spanish for the first time the four volumes of the work Modo de estudiar, y enseñar las bellas letras para ilustrar el entendimiento y rectificar el corazón, originally written by the historian and pedagogue Charles Rollin and published in French between 1726 and 1728. Both the publication of this work and Catalina de Caso’s daring in translating a fundamental text of theory and practice of the teaching of belles-lettres for secondary school, are unusual in mid-eighteenth century, when the presence of women in Spanish printing was still very scarce. The objective of this study is to analyze the keys of this exceptional movement of female «authority» in three fields, pedagogy, translation and belles-lettres, were women had little presence in those years. To this end, we will focus, among other aspects, on the institutional, social and family networks that sponsored and legitimized the work of Catalina de Caso in the time of Fernando VI, and which allowed her to elaborate her own pedagogical discourse in the paratexts of her translation.

Keywords

• maría catalina de caso
• modo de estudiar
• y enseñar las bellas letras
• charles rollin
• translation
• education
• xviiith. century
• paratexts
• networks