Translating Brazil: From Transnational Periodicals to Hemispheric Fictions, 1808-2010 By Krista Marie Brune A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Languages and Literatures in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Natalia Brizuela, Co-chair Professor Candace Slater, Co-chair Professor Scott Saul Spring 2016 Abstract Translating Brazil: From Transnational Periodicals to Hemispheric Fictions, 1808-2010 by Krista Marie Brune Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Languages and Literatures University of California, Berkeley Professor Natalia Brizuela, Co-chair Professor Candace Slater, Co-chair This dissertation analyzes how travel and translation informed the construction of Brazil as modern in the 19th century, and how similar processes of transnational translation continue to shape the cultural visibility of the nation abroad in the contemporary moment. By reading journals, literary works, and cultural criticism, this study inserts Brazilian literature and culture into recent debates about translatability, world literature, and cosmopolitanism, while also underscoring the often-overlooked presence of Brazilians in the United States. The first half of the dissertation contends that Portuguese-language periodicals Correio Braziliense (London, 1808-1822), Revista Nitheroy (Paris, 1836), and O Novo Mundo (New York, 1870-1879) translated European and North American ideas of technology and education to a readership primarily in Brazil. The transnational circulation of these periodicals contributed to the self- fashioning of intellectuals who came to define the nation. To suggest parallels between Brazil and the United States in the late 19th century, the analysis of O Novo Mundo focuses on discourses of nation, modernity, and technological progress emerging in the hemispheric travels of scientists, intellectuals, and the Brazilian empire Dom Pedro II, and in the national displays at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. The second half of the dissertation proposes a counterpoint to the 19th century by analyzing literature, cultural criticism, and art from the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The national coexists with the transnational in both historical periods as Brazilian intellectuals and artists look beyond Brazil in order to refine their definitions of the nation as modern. Contemporary writers like Silviano Santiago and Adriana Lisboa find themselves at home not in Brazil, but rather within the translation zones of the Americas. For Santiago, translating French theory to the Latin American context informs his concept of the space in-between, which in turn manifests itself in his fiction about Brazilians in the United States. This analysis examines how Santiago and Lisboa develop translational aesthetics in their narratives through code switching and cultural references in order to better capture the displacement experienced by their transnational characters. The relative success in translation of Lisboa’s tales of immigrant lives suggests a preference for translatability in the global literary market. The dissertation concludes by arguing that Nuno Ramos represents an alternative mode for artistic visibility beyond Brazil as a translator between genres and media whose work contests assumptions of translatability. 1 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………… ii Introduction ………………………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter One: Transatlantic Journalism and the Translation of 19th Century Brazil … 18 Chapter Two: Translational Transnationalism in O Novo Mundo and its New World Travels ………………………………………… 50 Chapter Three: Silviano Santiago as a Translational Subject Between Nations and Languages ………………………………… 109 Chapter Four: The Desires and Dangers of Translation in Contemporary Brazilian Fiction ………………………………… 143 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………… 182 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………… 190 i Acknowledgements Without the support and encouragement of so many people over the past years, this project would not have been possible. It has been a work of love and, at times, frustration that has benefitted from my conversations, dialogues, and exchanges with other readers, writers, translators, students, and scholars. I owe my gratitude to my professors and advisers, who introduced me to the fascinating world of Brazilian literature and culture, guided my initial readings and research, and provided generous comments and thought-provoking questions to help deepen my analysis, strengthen my argument, and polish my writing. Thanks to Pedro Meira Monteiro for his primeiras aulas, which sparked my interest in the music, people, history, and cultures in Brazil, and for his continued guidance and mentorship. Candace Slater welcomed me to Berkeley and has since encouraged me to expand my understanding of Brazil and to keep the essential questions in mind when writing. Mil gracias to Natalia Brizuela for her insights into Brazilian visual culture, 19th-century Latin American literature, and theoretical inquiries into space and time that have enriched this project. Scott Saul has reminded me of the importance of clear, precise prose and of thinking of your reader. Graduate seminars at Berkeley with Adriana Amante and Beatriz Sarlo contributed to my knowledge of the theoretical bibliography on travel and my reflections on Latin American travel literature. Participating in the 2013 NEH Summer Institute on The Centrality of Translation to the Humanities, organized by Elizabeth Lowe and Christopher Huggins at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, deepened my engagement with the question of translation as a theory and a practice. Research travels to Brazil, Portugal, and Washington D.C. enriched this project through archival work and conversations with artists and scholars. These trips were possible thanks to the generous funding of the Tinker Foundation and the Center for Latin American Studies, the Portuguese Studies Program, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UC Berkeley. The resources at the Biblioteca Nacional (Rio de Janeiro), the Instituto Geográfico e Histórico Brasileiro (Rio de Janeiro), the Museu Imperial (Petrópolis), and the Oliveira Lima Library (Washington D.C.) proved useful in the research and writing of chapter one and two. Maria Leal was particularly helpful in sorting through the vast collection at the Oliveira Lima Library. Conversations in Brazil with Silviano Santiago, Denílson Lopes, Luíza Lobo, Teresa Cribelli, Vilma Arêas, Bernardo Carvalho, Marcelino Freire, and Paloma Vidal at an early stage of this project provided insights into this project and helped me to better articulate its direction. Adriana Lisboa and Nuno Ramos each spent a month in Berkeley as visiting Brazilian artists while I was researching and writing this dissertation. Learning more about their creative process, hearing their thoughts on the current state of Brazilian literature and culture, and discussing their works contributed immensely to the development of my fourth chapter. I am deeply grateful for friends and family whose intellects have challenged me to think in new ways, whose passion and commitment to their work has inspired me, and whose unwavering emotional support has made it possible to get through even the most difficult parts of this process. To Manuel Cuellar, Camilo Jaramillo, Ivett López Malagamba, Ricardo López, Juan Sebastián Ospina León, and Julie Ward, I could not have asked for a better cohort. Muito obrigada to my fellow Luso-Brazilianists at Berkeley, Sebastião Edson Macedo, Clélia Donovan, Poema Quesada Valente, Katrina Dodson, and Catarina Gama, for making me a better scholar and teacher. Thanks to Manuel, Julie, Ashley Brock, and Julia Chang for keeping me on task and providing encouragement, accountability, and advice through our weekly goal-setting meetings. Muchísimas gracias to Verónica López for always listening. Conversations over ii coffee or dinner, writing sessions, and hikes with Emma Hayward, Vesna Rodic, Renata Stepanov, and Rachel Zuraw have provided much-needed diversions and have made the process of completing this dissertation a little less lonely. To friends in New York and Brazil, especially Lori Piranian Mulcare, Dan-el Padilla Peralta, and Liliane Costa da Silva and her family, thanks for welcoming me into your homes when I visited and for always sending support from afar. My deepest gratitude to Ian James Thompson, for keeping me grounded over these past years, for reading my work and providing pep talks when needed, and for making home a more joyful place filled with laughter and music. Finally, I must thank my parents, Gary and Linda Brune, for always encouraging me to follow my passions and for believing in me. iii Introduction As a non-native speaker of Portuguese from the United States, I have long approached Brazil from a distance. Growing up in Colorado, I rarely thought about Brazil, except for when I saw the occasional pictures of samba dancers, soccer players, or the Amazon rainforest in the news. The second-largest nation of the hemisphere was an unknown land. My view of Brazil was limited to stereotypes and commonplace associations with the tropics – in other words, the images that had contributed to Brazil’s visibility abroad since its initial founding in 1500 and had circulated globally since the mid-19th century though paintings, books, films, and music. These images, words, and rhythms served as translations