Reescritura feminista negra como ato de resistência: tradução do primeiro capítulo de Processing the secret of joy (1992) de Alice Walker

Abstract

The goal of this dissertation is to make an ethical and engaged translation of the preface and the first chapter of the novel Possessing the Secret of joy (1992), by Alice Walker, which highlights the orality present in the author´s speech and other afrodiasporic elements of the text. The novel deals with female genital mutilation and the harmful effects of this practice in the life of the African character Tashi. To accomplish this translation, we established the following specific objectives: to study female genital mutilation, to analyze the narrative to identify the afrodiasporic traits of the text and to investigate the social factors that motivated the author's writing. In this dissertation, translation is thought as a rewriting and the translator as a mediator, also highlighting the importance of culture as an element that reflects important identity aspects of the community that one wants to represent. In addition, we believe that Cultural and Post-colonial Studies displaced the monolithic enunciation to other places of speech. In this sense, Walker's work that is based on a black feminist epistemology empowers black women and confronts the hegemonic patterns that have long prevailed in the literary and translation fields. It brings diverse experiences that enrich the repertoire of the target culture through a translator’s performative work that involves black subjectivity, activism, ancestry and experiences that communicate in different parts of the diaspora.