‘Gender-bend(er)ing’ male identity : first steps in search of a critical-discursive approach to gay literature translation.

Abstract

This paper is an exploratory study of how lexical choices and grammatical structures adopted in translation seem to carry ideological burdens that sustain, perpetuate and challenge existing power relations present in source texts and their transfer to target texts. Supported by Critical Discourse Analysis and Genre Analysis, this article suggests that the more gay translation wins apparent recognition in the target social system, the more it is seen as a minor literature subject to diverse interpretations. The data source analyzed was Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve and its translation into Brazilian Portuguese. During the analysis some excerpts of the novel were chosen at random, in order to select some lexical and grammatical constructions of the way ideologies and power relations are represented in texts. Hence, this article aims at demonstrating that far from finding a favorable reception in the target culture, gay translation is likely to give rise to such a hostile reception which shows that minority issues are yet considered a subaltern subject.