A Tradução da Estrela: Exploring the Potential of Feminist Translation to Inform Research in Clarice Lispector’s Novel.

Abstract

(150-250 words): This work delves into the impact of translation on feminist opportunities through the case study of Brazilian author Clarice Lispector’s A Hora da Estrela (Lispector, 2019). A substantial portion of the research conducted in the Global North approaches Lispector with great interest in her feminist content, partly due to the author’s introduction to the Global North by French feminist groups (Pereira 1995). However, the English translations (Lispector, 1986, 2011) have not been aligned with feminist agendas but instead favour some adaptative techniques in order to introduce and popularise the author in the USA and UK contexts. As such, these translations did not render some of the feminist literary techniques of Lispector that infuse her novel with great disruptive force and which have not been acknowledged yet in the English-speaking sphere, as, for example, her experimental use of full-stops to comment on the authority of her narration. Ultimately, this study will offer a shift in the Global North’s perception of the author, whose novel’s ability to develop its own theory-making has been continuously undermined by the power dynamics of knowledge control between the Global North and South and more specifically the deafening effect of the current non-feminist translations (Baker, 2013; Schmidt and Macedo 2019; Castro and Spoturno 2020).