Date of Award
Spring 2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Spanish and Portuguese
First Advisor
Jackson, David
Abstract
This dissertation examines the poetics of translation of Augusto de Campos (1931- ) and Ana Cristina Cesar (1952-1983), two of Brazil’s most important poet-translators of the second half of the twentieth century. I argue that their respective poetics of translation can be interpreted as a form of correspondence in which the translator corresponds with the author of the source text and with the potential reader of the target text. The focus of Augusto’s response to the demands of this double correspondence is the “letter” understood as the materiality of the source and target text. His response to the source text and address to the potential reader of the target text is primarily aesthetic, in the etymological sense of the word: it is a process of sensory perception. The focus of Ana Cristina’s response to the demands of the double correspondence of translation is the rhetorical structure of the “letter” understood as epistolary writing. Her response to the source text and address to the potential reader of the target text is primarily intersubjective: it is a process of establishing a relation of intimacy. Augusto’s and Ana Cristina’s respective poetics of translation reflect the shifting demands that the double correspondence of translation places on the translator.
Recommended Citation
Osterbrock, Craig, "Poetics of the Letter: Translation and Correspondence in Augusto de Campos and Ana Cristina Cesar" (2024). Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations. 1361.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/gsas_dissertations/1361
