SELF-TRANSLATION: THE CASE OF JOÃO UBALDO RIBEIRO AND HIS SARGENTO GETÚLIO / SERGEANT GETÚLIO

Abstract

In this article, we discuss the work of self-translation of the Brazilian writer João Ubaldo Ribeiro who translated his novel Sargento Getúlio (1971) into English. Our analysis deals with Ubaldo’s choices for the translation of the general noun ‘coisa’, used in the original text as a form of treatment and in reference to the prisoner Getúlio takes to Aracaju. Based on the notions of autonomization and approximation (Britto, 1996), the results of our analysis suggest an apparent greater number of movements of autonomization but a also choice to to stay within the limits imposed by the original.