Regionalismo, tradução e alteridade: aspectos críticos da tradução de Graciliano Ramos e Jorge Amado

Abstract

This thesis aims to assess how the translations into English of the novels Barren Lives (1965[1938]) and Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (1962[1958]), written by Graciliano Ramos and Jorge Amado, dealt with elements of Brazilian northeast popular culture. In order to do this, we will briefly consider Brazilian regionalism; taking into account the problematic of regional social issues discussed by Mario Benedetti (1972), as well the vision of super-realism proposed by Antonio Candido (2003). We will, also, make an assessment of the amount of translated works of Graciliano Ramos and Jorge Amado, paying more attention to Barren Lives and Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon cases, and to the historical facts that led to a significant increase in the translation of Latin American works, from the 1960’s. On this point, we will discuss the importance of these authors and their works and the reasons that led to these translations. Then, we will try to demonstrate how translation can serve as a tool, allowing the contact between cultures, serving both to motivate diverse political ideologies, as to reaffirm pre-existing sociopolitical systems. With this purpose, we have considered the translating postures described by Lawrence Venuti (2008[1995]), correlating the concepts of "domestication" and "foreignization" with the Freudian concept of the “unheimlich” (1919). Finally, we will compare excerpts from the originals, according to the areas in which it is possible to encounter difficulties in the translation of a cultural world other, presented by Eugene Nida (1945) and taken up by Georges Mounin (1975[1963]). We are going to review the decisions made by these translators taking in consideration deforming tendencies of translation, regarding prose, described by Antoine Berman (2007[1985]). In addition, we will evaluate the treatment provided to the titles of books and their respective chapters. We will also propose solutions to the sections evaluated, basing ourselves on the translation of the letter, because we believe, as did Berman, it is the only one capable of revealing the linguistic and cultural differences that specify literature, and allowing the exchange between cultures.