O descentramento das identidades e o outro diferente: Reflexões pós-modernas sobre a tradução inevitável

Abstract

In modern tradition, the hegemonic pole sets a normal pattern, dictates a hierarchical mode. As part of this privileged group, texts deemed as original and their authors receive a positive value, while non-mediation and transparency are required for translation, as the other. Postmodern reflections on the representation of the other in translated texts influenced movements that have questioned such process of polarization. In this work, we highlight the ideas of Derrida (1973, 1978 e 1995) on the absence of transcendental meaning; the discussion by Berman (2012) of the relationship between identity and translation; and Von Flotow's Queerying translational proposal (2013), in which translation, with its performative power, may act on behalf of feminist movements. Relating and contrasting points of view, the current article considers difference as an inherent aspect of translation, and discusses the ideological power that is exerted by the translation act in the construction of identities and/or consolidation of differences in postmodern thought. In addition, the paper analyzes the proposal of double translation, into Portuguese, made by Maurício Mendonça Cardozo, of the German novel Der Shimmelreiter (1888), by Theodor Storm, and the way it relates to the issue regarding the identity of translation and its relationship with difference.