A casa dos budas ditosos de João Ubaldo Ribeiro:

rewriting and translating lust between Brazil and Italy

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the rewriting of the novel A casa dos Budas Ditosos written by João Ubaldo Ribeiro, and its position in the Italian context. The paratextual elements of the translated text and its rewriting are examinated in order to understand how patronage and poetics influenced the translation, according to the theory of André Lefevere. The article also analyses the position of the novel within the Italian literary system, with a brief analysis of the translation, based on the polysystem theory of Itamar Even-Zohar. From these observations we try to understand how the translation process ends up perpetuating a collective imaginary often linked to stereotypes already rooted in the target cultural system under analysis.