Tradução e Censura : o teatro traduzido e censurado durante duas ditaduras no Brasil (1937-1945,1964-1985)

Numerous studies exist on theatrical works translated and censored during periods of dictatorship in Brazil and other countries around the world. However, few among such studies are devoted to strategies used by the translator to avoid or circumvent censorship. Situated in the area of Translation History, this work investigates strategies used in the translation of theater plays during Brazil’s two dictatorships: the Estado Novo (1937-1945) and the Military Dictatorship (1964-1985). We, in each of these periods, different censorship mechanisms and the varied strategies translators adopted in response. We thus sought to identify these strategies in correlation with each mechanism of censorship that provoked them. To our knowledge, there is no study comparing these aspects between the two dictatorships. Our methodology entailed analysis of a corpus of plays translated and censored during the aforementioned periods of dictatorship. The works were retrieved from the Miroel Silveira Archive. An examination of censorship dossiers (among them the translations themselves, comments and opinions of the censors, and negotiations between the censors and directors of the theatrical works) broadened our understanding of censors’ actions while analysis of the theatrical works provided insight into translators’ reaction to censorship. Articulated with historical contexts, these aspects allowed us to conclude that there was a variation between the procedures and the translation strategies used in each dictatorship. The success of the study owes much to the work of descriptivist theorists on norms and the patronage system - in particular, Toury (1995) and Lefevere (1992), who shone light on the functioning of censorship within and without the literary system, and its impact on translators. The concept of censorship, frequently described as multifaceted and arbitrary, requires further research studies exploring on its interrelationships with translation. This is one of the chief contributions of this work. In order to achieve the objectives stated above, this study has been divided into five chapters: 1) Translation, Theater and Censorship, in which we introduce the main concepts used by authors who are interested in these subjects; 2) Theoretical and methodological aspects, in which we present the theoretical bases, the methodology (TRACE), and finally our own methodology; 3) Estado Novo and the main characteristics of this period (historical context, laws and decrees of censorship), the general data collected in the Miroel Silveira archives and, finally, the analysis of five plays translated and censored during this period; 4) Ditadura Militar, with the same content as the previous point but focused on the period; 5) Comparison of the two periods indicated above, in which we analyze the mechanisms of censorship and the different translation strategies that result from them.

Keyphrases: Estado Novo, Ditadura Militar, Translation, Theater, Censorship, Mechanisms of censhorship, Translation strategies, Miroel Silveira Archive, Estado Novo, Ditadura Militar