Eros em trânsitos: a tradução do erótico e do obsceno em três romances de Jorge Amado

Abstract

The study of the erotic and the obscene language in the literary work of Jorge Amado may allow the understanding of the sexual behavior at certain time and space, since many of his novels carry expressions of sexual desire, adulterer passion, virginity and chastity, in different places such as hostels, streets, houses and brothels. In order to expand the studies on the translation of Jorge Amado’s novels, this thesis firstly aimed to identify, interpret and analyze the eroticism and the obscenity in the literary work of this author. In order to ground this analysis, this thesis resorts to reflections of theorists such as George Bataille, Dominique Maingueneau, Giorgio Agambem, Michel Foucault e Pierre Bourdieu, among others. The basic corpus consists of three novels, namely: Dona Flor e Seus dois maridos (1966), Gabriela, Cravo e Canela (1958) e Tenda dos milagres (1969) and their respective translations into English. Later, the research focused on examining the translation of the traces of eroticism and obscenity into English, in order to investigate how the different translators – Harriet De Onís, James L. Taylor, William Grossman e Barbara Shelby – tackled the erotic and obscene language. As a support for the theoretical reflections concerning the translation procedures, this thesis brings reflections of Jacques Derrida, Rosemary Arrojo, Cristina Carneiro Rodrigues e Lawrence Venuti, among others. The analysis allowed me to observe how the representations of eroticism and obscenity were reconstructed, expanded or suppressed, in cultures of pronouncedly puritan origin. The investigation, naturally, includes the translators’ preferences, in addition to the social, historical and political contexts which involve such process.