Inter-lingual adaptation of a fable in analysis: methodological proposal and case study

Abstract

This article is part of a major research on the description of retextualizations of Tomas de Iriarte’s fables from Spanish to Portuguese. It discusses a methodological proposal for the analysis of translations and presents a case study on one of Iriarte’s fables, published in Spain in the eighteenth century and translated into Brazilian Portuguese in the twentieth century. In order to outline some points for analysis, we present the theoretical framework created by Lambert and Van Gorp (2011 [1985]) and the work of Genette (2009 [1987]) about editorial paratexts, elements that contribute to the production of meaning and guide the reception of translated texts. The case study analyzes the source text “El Burro Flautista” and the target text “O Asno Flautista”. The analysis concludes that the main purpose of the target text is to meet the children as a target audience. In order to do so, it makes adaptations that reach the text in a global way, altering the construction of meanings in several aspects. At all levels, the target text tends towards the pole of acceptability and its dominant characteristics lead us to identify it not as a translation, but as an inter-lingual adaptation.