VERONESI, Raquel Barros. A reescritura das personagens 'womanistas' de The Color Purple para o Cinema. 2015. 160f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Letras, Fortaleza (CE), 2015. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2015-03-31T12:54:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_rbveronesi.pdf: 1893379 bytes, checksum: 8be8e578c998b24565a9290d5f0bf9ce (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2015-03-31T14:27:31Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_rbveronesi.pdf: 1893379 bytes, checksum: 8be8e578c998b24565a9290d5f0bf9ce (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-31T14:27:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_rbveronesi.pdf: 1893379 bytes, checksum: 8be8e578c998b24565a9290d5f0bf9ce (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / The present dissertation analyses the translation of womanism in The Color Purple (1982), by Alice Walker, into its homonymous film adaptation in 1985, directed by Steven Spielberg. The term womanism, although it also refers to the black feminism, relates to a movement that transcends the social aspect; it is, therefore, a spiritual movement, committed to the survival and welfare of all people, independent on race, sex, religion, among others. The novel The Color Purple tells Celie’s story, a semi-illiterate black teenager who writes letters to God, telling situations about her life. Through friendship with other women and, consequently, the discovery of new ways of being and feeling, the character tries to overcome the trauma caused by the separation of her sister and her children, and the physical and psychological rapes she had suffered. In this research, we investigate, specifically, the rewriting of four female characters – Celie, Nettie, Sofia and Shug – since we perceive them as the main representative of womanism in the novel. Our hypothesis is that some womanist aspects, such as religion and homosexuality, were softened in the translation, due to contextual issues, whereas others were emphasized because they were adapted into both the poetics of the cinema of the 80’s, and of the director. As theoretical background, we take Even-Zohar’s postulates (1990), about the polysystem theory, and Toury’s assumptions (2012), which understand the studies of translation emphasizing the cultural factor, and considering the influence that the target culture has on the translation process. We also take Lefevere’s concept of rewriting (2007), which emphasizes the historical and cultural nature of the translated texts. Concerning the translation of literary works into the cinema, we use the studies by Cattrysse (1992), and the considerations of authors, such as Stam (2008; 2011) and Hutcheon (2013), who discuss the relationship between the two language systems. Finally, about womanism, the reflections by Maparyan (2012) and Walker (1983) are critical in conducting the analysis. The results showed that the strategies of softening and emphasis on the translation of the female characters’ womanist traits concern the translators’ poetic, as well as the specificities of the cinematic system. Therefore, in the adaptation, they reflect much more the poetics of Hollywood cinema of the 80’s, and of the director, than the womanism observed in the literary work. / A presente dissertação analisa a tradução do “womanismo” em The Color Purple (1982), da escritora Alice Walker, para o filme homônimo de 1985, dirigido por Steven Spielberg. O termo womanism, embora se refira também ao feminismo negro, diz respeito a um movimento que transcende o social; ele é, portanto, um movimento espiritual, comprometido com a sobrevivência e o bem-estar de todas as pessoas, independente de raça, sexo, religião, entre outros aspectos. O romance The Color Purple narra a história de Celie, uma adolescente negra semiletrada, que escreve cartas a Deus, contando sobre sua vida. Por meio da amizade com outras mulheres e, consequentemente, da descoberta de novas formas de ser e sentir, a personagem tenta superar os traumas causados pela separação da irmã e de seus filhos e pelos estupros físicos e psicológicos que sofreu. Nesta pesquisa, investigamos, especificamente, a reescritura de quatro personagens femininas – Celie, Nettie, Sofia e Shug – uma vez que as percebemos como as principais representantes do “womanismo” no romance. Partimos da hipótese de que alguns aspectos “womanistas”, tais como religião e homossexualidade, foram suavizados na tradução, devido a questões contextuais, enquanto outros foram enfatizados porque se adequavam à poética, tanto do diretor, quanto do cinema da década de oitenta. Como fundamentação teórica, recorremos aos postulados de Even-Zohar (1990), sobre a teoria dos polissistemas, e aos pressupostos de Toury (2012), que entendem os estudos da tradução com ênfase no fator cultural, considerando a influência que a cultura de chegada exerce sobre o processo tradutório. Baseamo-nos também no conceito de reescritura, de Lefevere (2007), que enfatiza o caráter histórico e cultural dos textos traduzidos. Sobre as questões de tradução de obras literárias para o cinema, empregamos os estudos de Cattrysse (1992), e as considerações de autores, tais como Stam (2008; 2011) e Hutcheon (2013), que discutem sobre a relação entre os dois sistemas de linguagem. Por fim, no que se refere ao “womanismo”, as reflexões de Maparyan (2012), bem como da própria Walker (1983) são fundamentais na condução da análise. Os resultados mostraram que as estratégias de suavização e ênfase na tradução dos traços “womanistas” das personagens femininas dizem respeito à poética dos tradutores, bem como às especificidades do sistema cinematográfico. Por isso, na adaptação, elas refletem muito mais a poética do diretor e do cinema hollywoodiano dos anos oitenta, do que o “womanismo” observado na obra literária.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Broken bodies litter the landscape of African American women’s literature. Missing limbs and teeth, paralyzed appendages, lost hair, and deformities appear frequently in the works of authors like Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Ann Petry, Dorothy West, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Pearl Cleage, and Octavia Butler. While many white authors also include broken bodies in their works, Hemingway’s preoccupation with synecdoche in terms of body parts perhaps being the most notable example, the motif permeates the tradition of African American women’s fiction like no other genre, appearing in the work of almost every major African American woman author. In the case of some authors, Morrison and Walker for example, broken bodies appear in every novel of their corpuses. In fact, every story in Walker’s first collection of short stories, In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women, features a broken body. Several questions arise from the ubiquity of this motif in the texts of African American women authors: Where did the motif originate? Why does the motif persist? Do the authors use the motif in the same way? What does the trail of broken bodies reveal about how African American women authors interpret the relationship between body and self? Surprisingly, given the prevalence of the motif and the number of critical comments on one or another text, no critic has essayed a comprehensive examination of the motif in African American literature. While this paper does not have the scope to cover the African American canon as a whole, it will discuss the motif across the works of Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T19:59:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Waltecy Alves dos Santos.pdf: 1242912 bytes, checksum: 264968caf613c59a1bc3e5eb4a233a18 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-03-20 / This paper associates Literary Studies to Cultural Studies with the intention of comparing literatures that show itself as historically constituted subjects. In this sense, The female voice in literature of African ascendency: hybridism of myths and rites in the novels Niketche of Paulina Chiziane and The Color Purple of Alice Walker is a study that suggest literary-cultural reflections on the constructions of identities in these works. The research focuses on the construction of the subject through his speech and establishing the relationship with remarkable images in search of otherness namely, the mirror, unfolded in the letter, and the bed in addition to pointing out the problem of myths and rites as matrices to a new voice defined by cultural hybridism and fixed in orality. Finally, this research tries to describe the similarities and differences with respect to oppression and exclusion of marginal voices in case of the female voice of African ascendency examining them in what they have of challenging and transgressive in front of eurocentrical, patriarchal and theological assumptions, as they are presented in these works / A presente dissertação associa os Estudos Literários aos Estudos Culturais com o objetivo de aproximar literaturas que apresentam sujeitos historicamente constituídos. Sendo assim, A voz feminina na literatura de ascendência africana: Hibridismo de mitos e ritos nos romances Niketche de Paulina Chiziane e A cor púrpura de Alice Walker é um estudo que aponta reflexões literário-culturais a respeito da construção das identidades presentes nestas obras. A pesquisa centra-se na construção do sujeito por meio do seu discurso e na relação que estabelecem com imagens marcantes na busca da alteridade a saber o espelho, desdobrado na carta, e a cama além de apontar a problemática dos mitos e ritos como matrizes para uma nova voz marcada pelo hibridismo cultural e alicerçada na oralidade. Enfim, a pesquisa ambiciona esboçar as semelhanças e diferenças no que tange a opressão e exclusão de vozes marginais no caso a voz feminina e de ascendência africana analisando-as naquilo em que elas têm de desafiador e transgressor perante os pressupostos eurocêntricos, patriarcais e teológicos, apresentados nestas obras

In this dissertation, I show how 20th century African-American women writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison utilize animals-as-trope in order to illustrate the writers' humanity and literary vision. In the texts that I have selected, I have found that animals-as-trope functions in two important ways: the first function of animal as trope is a pragmatic one, which serves to express the humanity of African Americans; and the second function of animal tropes in African-American women's fiction is relational and expresses these writers' "ethic of caring" that stems from their folk and womanist world view. Found primarily in slave narratives and in domestic fiction of the 19th and early 20th centuries, pragmatic animal metaphors and/or similes provide direct analogies between the treatment of African-Americans and animals. Here, these writers often engage in rhetoric that challenges pro-slavery apologists, who attempted to disprove the humanity of African-Americans by portraying them as animals fit to be enslaved. Animals, therefore, become the metaphor of both the abolitionist and the slavery apologist for all that is not human. The second function of animals-as-trope in the fiction of African-American women writers goes beyond the pragmatic goal of proving African-Americans's common humanity, even though one could argue that this goal is still present in contemporary African-American fiction. Animals-as-trope also functions to express the African-American woman writer's understanding that 1) all oppressions stem from the same source; 2) that the division between nature/culture is a false onethat a universal connection exists between all living creatures; and 3) that an ethic of caring, or relational epistemology, can be extended to include non-human animals. Twentieth-century African-American writers such as Hurston, Walker, and Morrison participate in what anthropologists term, "neototemism," which is the contemporary view that humankind is part of nature, or a vision that Morrison would most likely attribute to the "folk." This perspective places their celebration of the continuous relations between humans and animals within a spiritual, indeed, tribal, cosmological construction. What makes these particular writers primarily different from their literary mothers, however, is a stronger sense that they are reclaiming the past, both an African and African-American history. What I hope to contribute with this dissertation is a new perspective of African-American women writers' literary tradition via their usage of animals as an expression of their "ethic of caring" and their awareness that all oppression stems from a single source.

This thesis investigates the prevalence of religious themes in the work of several prominent contemporary women writers—Margaret Atwood, Michèle Roberts, Alice Walker and A.L. Kennedy. Relying on Luce Irigaray’s recent theorisations of the religious and its relationship to feminine subjectivity, this research considers the subversive potential of engaging with religious discourse through literature, and contributes to burgeoning criticism of feminist revisionary writing. The novels analysed in this thesis show, often in violent detail, that the way the religious dimension has been conceptualised and articulated enforces negative views of female sexuality, justifies violence against the body, alienates women from autonomous creative expression and paralyses the development of a subjectivity in the feminine. Rather than looking at women’s religious revision primarily as a means of asserting female authority, as previous studies have done, I argue that these writers, in addition to critiquing patriarchal religion, articulate ways of being and knowing that subvert the binary logic that dominates Western religious discourse. Chapter I contextualises this research in Luce Irigaray’s theories and outlines existing work on feminist revisionist literature. The remaining chapters offer close readings of key novels in light of these theories: Chapter II examines Atwood’s interrogation of oppositional logic in religious discourse through her novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Chapter III explores two novels by Roberts that expose the violence inherent in religious discourse and deconstruct the subjection of the (female) body to the (masculine) Word. Chapters IV and V analyse the fiction of Kennedy and Walker respectively, revealing how their novels confront the religious denigration of feminine sexuality and refigure the connection between eroticism and divinity. Evident in each of these fictional accounts is a forceful critique of religious discourse, as well as an attempt to more closely reconcile foundational religious oppositions between divinity and humanity, flesh and spirit, and body and Word.