Identity and gender in Brazilian and American translations of La Casa de los Espíritus, by Isabel Allende

• Grant number: 19/18611-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Effective date (Start): January 01, 2020
• Effective date (End): March 17, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Applied Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Lauro Maia Amorim
• Grantee: Pâmela Berton Costa
• Supervisor: Olga Castro Vázquez
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil
• Research place: University of Warwick, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 18/17944-5 - Identity and gender in both Brazilian and American translations of La casa de los espíritus, by Chilean author Isabel Allende, BP.DD

Abstract

In this project, we propose a three-month stay at the University of Warwick (Conventry, UK) under the supervision of Professor Olga Castro, to write a chapter of the dissertation (one chapter out of five) that will focus on Feminist Translation Studies. To do so, I intend to study these practices of translation at Aston, for this field is still underdeveloped in Brazil. Therefore, it is important to highlight that this study is based on the idea of translation as transformation, as the result of an interpretative activity. Hence, a comparative analysis between an original and its translation(s) aims to demonstrate some of the possible transformations a text went through and to point out which of these changes we may accept as valid (or not) according to certain stablished parameters. After analysing La Casa de los Espíritus, by Chilean author Isabel Allende, and two of its translations, I concluded that both translations differ substantially: the American translator seems to highlight the aspects of the novel that favour women; on the other hand, the Brazilian translator seems to mitigate the feminine figures and the critical remarks on sexism. During this analysis, the Feminist Translation Studies were not considered. Now, the PhD research aims to re-discuss the corpus taking into account Feminist Translation Studies. Based on the conclusions about the feminist translation practices, I will re-translate the analysed corpus to Portuguese, seeking to give voice to women in the same way the original book seems to do. Therefore, this project focus on just one phase of the research: discussions about Feminist Translation Studies. (AU)