Writing Circulation of Hispano-American women in Brazil: a critique from the translation history

Abstract

There is a good reception of women writing (literary and non-literary, since the 1930s - 1940s) and Hispano-American literature (particularly in and since the 1970s) in Brazil. Despite of it, there is still a proportionally small number of books on translation exclusively written by Hispano-American women published and circulating in the book history in Brazil. To present this phenomenon and to propose some possible explanations for it, this work searches for postulates of the decolonial critique, focusing on the colonial history of Brazil and its impacts on the history of women, as well as the history of reading, the book and translation in Brazil. Finally, after arguing that translated literatures play an important role in the transformation of conservative repertoires, this article links some recent translations of Hispano-American authors and points out some “translation gaps”. In other words, it lists female writers and works that, despite having acquired fame in their original literary systems, were not put into circulation by way of translation in Brazil.