Abstract
The way Alexandre Herculano (1810-1877), one of the founders of Portuguese Romanticism, refers to Charles Dickens (1812- 1870) in 1851, including him among the modern representatives of ‘industrial literature,’ of ‘merchandise literature,’ of ‘pot boilers’ (“Da Propriedade Litteraria”), is significant proof that admiration for the
British novelist and recognition of his work’s social scope were late in arriving in Portugal. The following years saw some of the most prominent Portuguese literary critics of the Romantic period follow in Herculano’s footsteps in displaying the same lack of knowledge of and appreciation for Dickens’s work. This poverty in the critical
reception of Dickens was matched by an equally poor reception of his work in translation. Up to 1865, the year which witnessed the crucial turning point in the Portuguese Romantic process, published translations into Portuguese of Dickens’s work were few and did not include any of his novels. However, these translations appeared in the periodical press, at the time the most widely read medium for cultural dissemination, so that they will have reached a relatively wide audience. Of the narratives to be found in Sketches by Boz published by Jornal do Porto in 1863-1864, ‘O veu negro’ (‘The Black Veil’ in the original) stands out as the Boz story which would most often be published in Portuguese: nine times between 1863 e 1904. This peculiarity constitutes this article’s object of study, which seeks to follow
the transit of this short narrative in Portugal in translation. By comparing the nine versions one against the other I will enquire whether these are all different translations or reprints, subject to revision or otherwise. I will further examine the linguistic-textual features of the successive translations, considering whether there is paratextual material, the translating strategies used, the processes of manipulation and re-writing, and also the elements which allow us to infer the status
of the translator and of the practice of translation in the Portuguese literary system of the time.
British novelist and recognition of his work’s social scope were late in arriving in Portugal. The following years saw some of the most prominent Portuguese literary critics of the Romantic period follow in Herculano’s footsteps in displaying the same lack of knowledge of and appreciation for Dickens’s work. This poverty in the critical
reception of Dickens was matched by an equally poor reception of his work in translation. Up to 1865, the year which witnessed the crucial turning point in the Portuguese Romantic process, published translations into Portuguese of Dickens’s work were few and did not include any of his novels. However, these translations appeared in the periodical press, at the time the most widely read medium for cultural dissemination, so that they will have reached a relatively wide audience. Of the narratives to be found in Sketches by Boz published by Jornal do Porto in 1863-1864, ‘O veu negro’ (‘The Black Veil’ in the original) stands out as the Boz story which would most often be published in Portuguese: nine times between 1863 e 1904. This peculiarity constitutes this article’s object of study, which seeks to follow
the transit of this short narrative in Portugal in translation. By comparing the nine versions one against the other I will enquire whether these are all different translations or reprints, subject to revision or otherwise. I will further examine the linguistic-textual features of the successive translations, considering whether there is paratextual material, the translating strategies used, the processes of manipulation and re-writing, and also the elements which allow us to infer the status
of the translator and of the practice of translation in the Portuguese literary system of the time.
Translated title of the contribution | Dickens in ‘Trajes Portugueses’: : Translation and Retranslation of the Short Narrative ‘The Black Veil’ |
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Original language | Portuguese |
Pages (from-to) | 127-153 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | Revista de Estudos Anglo-Portugueses |
Issue number | 30 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2021 |