The Brasilian Newspeak:

an analysis of two translations

Abstract

This article proposes a comparative analysis between excerpts from the translations of the appendix of the book “1984”, entitled “The Principles of Newspeak”, and the original in English, in order to indicate possible interpretations and strategies involved in the translation process. Above all, the processes of domestication and foreignization were studied, as described by Schleiermacher (2007 [1838]) and taken up by Venuti (1995). The perspectives of translation by Arrojo (1993) were also considered, who understands translation as a reading in which the subject constructs the meaning of the text from his individual and collective conceptions, and by Siscar (2001), who addresses the issue origin in the translation process. It is concluded that all translation decisions derive from a reading and the way that the professionals judged to be the most appropriate to convey to the target audience their understanding of Newspeak in Brazilian Portuguese.