Intertícios históricos da tradução literária: Uma análise sobre Sllepwalking land e the death the life of a Severino

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between translation studies, cultural studies and literary translation to understand power relations and the relationship between language and culture. The analysis of the works written by two authors who have received the American Neustadt Prize, namely The death and the life of a Severino by João Cabral de Melo Neto translated by Elizabeth bishop, and Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto, translated by David Brookshaw, establishes a rereading about the practice of translation and points to the urgency of a redefinition of thought in literary translation. Three major axes, literature, culture, and translation are combined to reach two central points: the ethical and the poetic. The ethical and the poetic factors are grouped together in the axes, for literary production is unconditionally subject to the rules of media and publishing market, which leads to manipulation and imposition of tastes and needs. In this way, several theories are used to comprehend the discourse of translation (precisely in the Anglo-American context) amid a series of political and social issues as well as to understand how translation manifests itself within the formation of cultural identities. The study concludes by considering literary translation as a means of contesting dualistic premises and absolute sense since the very volatility of languages does not admit fixed principles and homogenizing tendencies sought by the publishing market.