Tradução e mediação: o corpo em Lavoura Arcaica, de Raduan Nassar e de Luiz Fernando Carvalho

Abstract

This thesis aims at demonstrating that translation can be considered as a process and a product which result from sign mediation, not limited to verbal or linguistic signs, and which can occur by means of the body and adaptations. In order to discuss translation from a semiotic perspective, we analyse the novel Lavoura arcaica (Ancient tillage), by Raduan Nassar (1975), and its film adaptation, directed by Luiz Fernando Carvalho (2001), based on Charles S. Peirce’s semiotics (1931-1958), considering the sign mediation process as a key point for the analysis here conducted, on Shusterman’s (2008) and Varela, Thompson and Rosch’s thought about the relation between body and cognition, on Gil’s (1997, 2000) and Pavis’ (2003) ideas about body and performance, and on Hutcheon’s (2013) and Stam’s (2000, 2006, 2008) studies about adaptations. The analysis of the novel Lavoura arcaica allowed us to understand the body of the characters as the place of mediation where signs, meanings and translation are produced. In the same way, the analysis of the film directed by Carvalho made it possible to verify that film adaptations happen due to many sign mediations performed by the director, its crew and by the actors during a long creative process that is plenty of peculiarities, which turns the movie into a kind of transposition from one sign system into another and, consequently, a translation of the novel. Combining the analysis of Lavoura arcaica, novel and film, with the discussion of Jakobson’s idea of translation (1959/2012), and approaching them from the semiotics point of view, we conclude that translation is, essentially, a sign mediation process and a product of such process regardless of it occurs between verbal or non-verbal signs, also happening by means of body expressions and film adaptations.