Mark Twain: The Making of an Icon through Translations of Huckleberry Finn in Brazil

This article examines Mark Twain’s journey into the Brazilian editorial market by analyzing paratexts of seven translations into Brazilian Portuguese of Mark Twain’s novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), published over a period of eighty-five years (from 1934 — the date of the first translation — to 2019, the date of the last translation at present). The translations’ paratexts, such as notes, foreword, after -word, flaps and back panel, as well as other texts discussing the translation of the book in newspapers, reviews, and interviews, are analyzed with the intention to show the pathway through which Huckleberry Finn was translated and received by critics and the public in Brazil and how the paratexts construct the image of a Brazilian Mark Twain. The analysis will take into account the transnational approaches proposed by Shelley Fisher Fishkin, as well as the perspective Maria Sílvia Betti suggests for understanding how the Brazilian publishing market has shaped Mark Twain’s image in Brazil. The translations discussed here are by Monteiro Lobato (Companhia Editora Nacional, 1934), José Maria Machado (Clube do Livro, 1961), Sergio Flaksman (Ática, 1996), Maura Sardinha (BestBolso, 2011), 1 Rosaura Eichenberg (L&PM Pocket, 2011), Alda Porto (Claret, 2013), and José Roberto O’Shea (Zahar, 2019). 2 Comparing the changing paratext of the different translations illustrates the transculturation route of Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and the sociocultural web connecting the novel to the Brazilian literary scene. The criterion for the selected translations was based on the increasing number of paratexts included, i.e., the first translations include basic material to familiarize the reader with the author and his work whereas the later editions provide more detailed information. 3 The paratexts of the selected translations, analyzed in detail below, change over time in the way they mediate between reader and author. The early translation