dialnet-traduzircomautonomiaestrategiasparaotradutoremform-4925513

8/20/2019 Dialnet-TraduzirComAutonomiaEstrategiasParaOTradutorEmForm-4925513

1/3

Resenhas 245

Traduzir com autonomia –

estr atégias para o tradutor em

formação . Fábio Alves, CéliaMagalhães & Adriana Pagano(ed.). São Paulo: Contexto, 2000,159 pp.

Traduzir com autonomia – estra-

tégias para o tradutor em forma-

ção has as its central aim thepraiseworthy proposal of makingtranslators aware of the

complexities involved intranslational practices. Particularlyuseful for undergraduatetranslation students, due to itssimple, friendly andstraightforward language, this co-authored book, by Fábio Alves,Célia Magalhães e Adriana

Pagano, figures as an introductorytext: it questions myths whichsurround translation and proposesstrategies which would leadtranslators to take autonomous andconscious decisions. Thesestrategies vary from external andinternal sources of assistance (such

as textual sources or inferentialmechanisms) to macro andmicrotextual analyses which mightaid translators when makingtranslation choices.

In an attempt to maketranslators-to-be aware of thecomplexities involved in thetranslational process, the book,subdivided into seven moments,actually deals with the variousstages which make up a didacticmodel proposed by Alves andpresented in the last chapter. Aftera discussion on myths and beliefsusually related to translation in theopening chapter, there is onechapter devoted to translationunits, an essential notion within theframework of Alves’s didactic

model. From that point on, eachchapter approaches strategiescorresponding to the various stagesof the model. In the final chapter,Alves proposes ways of applyingit. The book is presented asfollowing an interdisciplinaryapproach, drawing on notions

from areas such as appliedlinguistics, psycholinguistics,discourse analysis, cognitivepsychology and computer science.Nevertheless, strong emphasis isput on the cognitive aspects of translation processes.

Each chapter, written by one

of the authors, is structured in asimilar fashion: presentation of aims, theoretical foundation andactivities which aim at applying thetheoretical concepts previously


2/3

246 Resenhas

explored (at the end of the book,there are answers for all exercisesproposed). There is also a largeamount of rich illustrative materi-al, with texts from various genres.Written in a simple and didactictone, the book is appropriate forclassroom works in undergraduatetranslation courses.

However, those who opt forusing Traduzi r com autonomia would be advised to bear someprecautions in mind, since didacticconcerns may, at times, lead to acertain oversimplification and

generalisation of rather complexissues. These issues are sometimespresented, in a rather vague form,as having been approached by“some scholars”, “variousexperiments”, “theoreticians whodeal with this issue”, etc.

The list containing suggestions

for supplementary readingpresented at the end of each chapterconstitutes a very useful indicatorfor readers/users interested inimproving their knowledgeconcerning some theoretical issuesexplored in the book. Anotherissue is a certain lack of precision

in many of the references alongthe book, which turns out to beproblematic. The reader is told,for instance, that Mona Baker haspresented a certain notion of the

termword, which is appropriatedby the author of the sixth chapter,but (s)he is not told in which bookor article Baker has done so. Inthis way, there seems to be somelack of rigor when presentingacademic references which, to acertain extent, limits theapplicability of Traduzir com autonomia .

The reader/user has also to dealwith other minor flaws which arenot so problematic. There is, forinstance, an allusion to page 214,when the book has, in a whole,

159 pages. Minor flaws like thisone lead to the feeling that,perhaps, a more accurate finalrevision would be welcome.

But, maybe, the most seriouslimitation of Traduzir com autonomia is related to those momentsin which it fails to follow its cen-

tral proposal: in a book whichproposes to make translators-to-beaware of complexities involved intranslational processes, thesimplistic form in which somedomesticating practices aresuggested is, to say the least,disappointing. Magalhães, for

instance, approaches thetranslation of forms of address ina rather hasty manner: she rejectsthe form “Sra. Lincoln” on thegrounds that it is not a “cultural


3/3

Resenhas 247

fact of ours to address marriedwomen by their surname with thetitle Sra ”. Such a consideration,valid as it may be for some textualgenres, might be questioned whenanalysing translations of literarytexts. In this case, the didacticproposal of the book seems to comecentral stage to the extent thatrather controversial questions areapproached as if they wereunanimously approved of. SinceTraduzi r com autonomia waspublished in the year 2000, whena number of tendencies within

Translation Studies have beenquestioning domesticatingpractices, the proposal of suchpractices without a dueproblematisation runs counter tothe proposal of making translatorsaware of complexities involved intranslation. Even taking into

account that the book is notdevoted to a political discussion ontranslation, there are somemoments in which we miss, at

least, signs that its authors areaware of cultural and politicalimplications of some suggestionspresented in the book.

Despite the limitationssignalled above, Traduzir com autonomia certainly has its role in amarket which is still short of didactic material which aims attranslator training programs.When well monitored, mostactivities proposed may well leadto relevant discussions as regardscomplexities of translation, as wellas question old myths, such as the

mistaken idea that, in order totranslate successfully, it suffices tospeak a foreign language fluently.And, as Alves attests at the end of the final chapter, awarenessregarding the various stages of thetranslational process, as well asregarding their many complexities,

leads to a better use of strategies, tosureness about decisions made duringtranslational practices and, possibly,to a higher quality of the target text.

Ritalice Medeiros

UFSC

dialnet-traduzircomautonomiaestrategiasparaotradutoremform-4925513

Documents