Miguel Neneve (University of Guyana/University of Rondonia/CNP)
and Roseli Siepamann (Independent Researcher)
Pauline Melville’s The Ventriloquist Tale is one of the very few books by a Guyanese author which has a Portuguese translation. Perhaps, this is partly due to the fact that Melville’s work makes an intertextual relationship with Mario de Andrade's Macunaima, an important work of Brazilian Modernism. Melville’s work and its translation into Portuguese (by Beth Vieira) has caused many readers and critics to reread Mario de Annrade’s Macunaima and compare the two works, as for example the important article by Albert Braz entitled “Mutilated Selves: Pauline Melville, Mario de Adnrade , and the troubling hybrid” (Mosaic,2007). The fact that Melville read Macunaima in English and the fact that the Brazilian translator seems to disregard the Brazilian work before translating The Ventriloquist’s Tale makes the trickster’s expression “ Ai que Preguiça!” (which carries a positive sense) become “ que vida desgraçada” (which suggests a negative view of life) . In this work we propose to discuss the Portuguese translation of The Ventriloquist’s Tale and its significance for the rereading of Mario de Andrade’s Macunaima.
