Time and the Wind(ow of the Event): the effects of time and the wind of changes in translations of autobiographies by African-American writers
Nenhuma Miniatura disponível
Data
2017-01-01
Autores
Amorim, Lauro Maia [UNESP]
Título da Revista
ISSN da Revista
Título de Volume
Editor
Univ Federal Parana, Editora
Resumo
The translation of autobiographies has been scarcely investigated in Translation Studies. This paper intends to contribute to analyzing translations of two autobiographies by African-American writers: Black boy, by Richard Wright (1908-1960), and I know why the caged bird sings, by Maya Angelou (1928-2014), by considering the effects that the passage of time has on translation. Conceived either by a writer/poet/musician or other professional, an autobiography seems to imply the previous existence of works or actions that turned its author into a celebrity. Unlike a novel, an autobiography would imply a commitment to truth as it allegedly portrays events the author has supposedly gone through, which, in theory, distances it away from the condition of fictionality. This paper draws on the role that time plays on the autobiographical making (in view of the differences between the present condition of enunciation during the author's act of narrating and the quest for the past when remembering takes place embedded in language), as well as on the renunciation undertaken by translation, which is impacted upon by the passage of time that sets it apart from the source text. The analysis suggests that the translations have built their own way of expression, whereby each one reimagines the autobiographical real in Portuguese.
Descrição
Palavras-chave
Translation, Autobiography, Time, African-American Literature
Como citar
Revista Letras. Parana: Univ Federal Parana, Editora, v. 95, p. 84-108, 2017.