The mad author's diary, by Edvard Munch (1863–1944)

Abstract

The major premise of the translation from Norwegian into Portuguese of the manuscript MM T 2734, entitled The Mad Author’s Diary, by Edvard Munch (1863-1944), is that, from time to time, an archival document can be treated, due to its characteristics, as a literary work – the diary understood as a literary genre, without going into the merits of the qualification of this work as a literary critic does –, at the same time that it is considered, due to its content belonging to another era – with the demand to research its context –, as a historical document. On the other hand, such a translation is also a form of democratization of a primary source, considering that the greater the reach of its material culture – even if by the way of virtual space –, the greater the chances of understanding it as a historical source, which, in this case being a diary, is also an object of preparation for artistic, written and/or pictorial expression.