The art of fugue in literary translation (projects)

Abstract

Translating obviously means more than a transfer from one language to another or from a source to a target text. Translating implies a complex transference process between cultures and is, at the same time, intrinsically linked to the most diverse forms of contact and confrontation between cultures. Translation activates, therefore, particular comprehension strategies that presuppose the existence of imbrications between cultures and (establish) the possibility of negotiating cultural difference. A real art of fugue. In this article I will briefly present two didactic projects of literary translation, that are, therefore, projects of cultural translation: The first didactic project of translation of the Portuguese anthology Do branco ao negro (2014) into German, Von Weiß bis Schwarz, (2017), carried out by students and professors of the Universität Mainz/Germersheim on the year 2015-2016; and a second didactic project, of smaller calibre, but of truly experimental character and with surprising results of retroversion of excerpts from three short stories of the anthology in German translation, carried out in a seminar on literary translation from Masters Programmes of the Universidade do Minho in 2017.