Itens culturais-específicos na antologia The Complete Stories, de Clarice Lispector, tradução de Katrina Dodson: uma análise das estratégias tradutórias.

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze strategies applied in the translation of culture-specific items (CSI) in the compilation The complete stories, by Clarice Lispector (1920-1977). The book, published by New Directions in English in 2015, was translated by Katrina Dodson and edited by Clarice’s biographer, Benjamin Moser. The collection of short stories was issued in Brazil as Todos os contos – a 2016 publication by Rocco. Right after its release in the United States, the anthology garnered a positive reception from literary critics. It ranked on the 2015 New York Times list of the 100 best books and on the list of best covers, in the same year. Translator Katrina Dodson also received the 2016 PEN Translation Award – an acclaimed award given by PEN American Center to the best translations of the year. When dealing with the challenge of translating CSIs, the translator is faced with different choices of procedures to adopt. In order assess the implications of such choices, it was important to: 1. identify and categorize the expressions in Clarice’s short stories that were considered as CSI; 2. identify and categorize the strategies applied in the translation of CSI; and 3. reflect on how translation strategies affected the (in)visibility of the translator’s work in the target culture. The analysis was carried out through the lenses of the following theoretical contribution: literary translation and its cultural implications (BASSNETT, 2003; EVEN-ZOHAR, 1990; LEFEVERE, 2007); the concept of cultural-specific item and approaches to translation strategies (AIXELÁ, 2013; VENUTI, 2008); the translator’s invisibility theory (VENUTI, 2008). In terms of methodology, this quanti-qualitative research that falls, in the field of translation studies, within the area of analysis of genre translation (prose fiction) (WILLIAM; CHESTERMAN, 2002). Results have pointed to the coexistence of foreignizing and domesticating strategies at different levels, which hints to the dynamic and complex configuration of this kind of terms in Clarice Lispector’s writing, who triggers in the reader feelings of strangeness, built not only on cultural/linguistic distance, but also built on the ingenious ways in which she deals with language. It is also possible to infer, through such results, that the translator, who has to create in order to translate, deals with an in-between position.