DIFFERENCES THAT CHARACTERIZE THE DRAMA A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE AND ITS TRANSLATION UM BONDE CHAMADO DESEJO

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to compare the English-language original of Tennessee Williams' drama A Streetcar Named Desire with Vadim Nikitin's Portuguese translation, Um bonde chamado Desejo, to identify the language categories that have differences between the two versions. In the 1990s, the concept of the subservient translator was replaced by another, visibly manipulative, understood as a subject inserted in a cultural, ideological, political, and psychological context – and cannot be ignored or eliminated. As a result of these impositions, the translator is obliged to make choices not always faithful to those of the language of the original text, implying differences in the interpretation of the text. The analysis is supported by Systemic-Functional Linguistics (LSF), a theoretical-methodological proposal by Halliday (1994), Halliday; Matthiessen (2004) and his collaborators. As Martin and White (200, p. 7) explain, "LSF is "a multiperspective model, designed to give analysts complementary lenses for interpreting the language in use." The results of the analysis show the impossibility of an accurate and faithful translation of the original, due to difficulties of nature both related to the subjectivity of the translator, as well as the typological characteristics of the languages in confrontation.