Haroldo de Campos and his constellated epistemology of translation from the tropics

Abstract

The following article has, as its primary objective, the research of how the epistemology of literary translation from Haroldo de Campos goes through a constellation imagery from the poet Stéphane Mallarmé and becomes, therefore, a constellated theory – that privileges a synchronic vision in translation. This imagery is attached to a synchrony in poetry that comes and goes through the typography of the paper without the need to follow a preconceived order. Campos uses this concept in his constellated theory of translation. The translation act and history, to him, are attached to the synchrony, because we only build past and present from the existence of a dialogue, a constant movement. Besides, part of this bigger objective is the fulfillment of a study that privileges a deconstruction of the logocentric perspective, since, even with the latest advance of the translation studies, obsolete ideas still prevail, like the ideas of servile translation, debts and influences. Therefore, with the constellated theory of translation from Haroldo de Campos as a foundation, we intend to analyze, with the aid of translation studies and comparative literature, how this Mallarmé concept was present in his epistemology. For that, we will make use of the concepts from Jacques Derrida (2001; 2006); Jorge Luis Borges (1999); Márcio Seligmann-Silva (2018); Silviano Santiago (2000); Susana Kampff Lages (1998); and Walter Benjamin (2010). Besides, we will also use the materials organized by Inês Oseki-Dépré (2012) and Marcelo Tápia with Thelma Médici Nóbrega (2013).