Portrayal of the feminine in the brazilian portuguese translation and retranslation of Han Kang's The Vegetarian

Abstract

Writing involves the materialization of one’s subjectivity, be it in the part of the writer/author or in the part of the translator/author. In this sense, gender issues, which are so important to the way the individual sees herself or himself in society, prove to be an interesting point of discussion to translation studies. In order to understand how the feminine is differently portrayed by different translators, we analyze the case of the two translations to Brazilian Portuguese of the South Korean novel The Vegetarian, by Han Kang. For that, we use as our theoretical base feminist translation thinkers who point out the centrality of translation in gender representation in literary texts.  Based on that, we compare the first translation in Brazil, by Yun Jung Im, to the retranslation, by Jae Hyung Woo. Through the analysis of the texts, it becomes clear that each translator’s choices result in different interpretations on the female issues addressed. As the novel has as one of its central themes women and the violence against women in society, each translation significantly impacts the reading and literary analysis of the book.