Sycorax Collective: the Unfoldings of Feminist Translation Practices

Abstract

The Brazilian translation collective, Coletivo Sycorax, was founded in 2016, aimed at collectively translating feminist and anti-capitalist books, while promoting the circulation of translated works under open licenses and the distribution of physical copies for free. For the Coletivo, translation encompasses both the action of introducing selected works into Brazilian Portuguese, in a way that “approximates” or “makes them seem closer” to our current context, in addition to promoting workshops and other activities based on our translations. This text has four sections and reports on projects, which have emphasized cooperation and network-building that are at the core of collective translation. The first section addresses the translation into Brazilian Portuguese of Caliban and the Witch (2004) and Revolution at Point Zero (2012), both by Silvia Federici. The second reports on the experience of translating Re-enchanting the World (2018), also by Silvia Federici, with twenty other feminist translators in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The third section addresses the translation of Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale (1986), by Maria Mies, in 2021; a project which represented an additional step toward directly negotiating royalties and translation rights to ensure open access to the translation. Finally, section four reports on the most recent project: an anthology of Latin American women and feminisms, in cooperation with Revista Amazonas and Ema Livros. Therefore, we aim to show how a number of feminist practices have unfolded from translation practice, which in turn has shifted from a collective translation practice to a commoning one.