O “DESAFIO ESTILÍSTICO”: UMA REFLEXÃO CRÍTICA SOBRE (IN)TRADUZIBILIDADE E TRADUÇÃO LITERÁRIA A PARTIR DA LINGUÍSTICA/POÉTICA DE ROMAN JAKOBSON

Abstract

Based on a set of fundamental texts from Roman Jakobson’s Linguistics and Poetics, this paper outlines a theory of (un)translatability with applications in the field of literary translation. While Jakobson argues that the sign is translatable by definition, poetry is singled out as an exception. Such a tension between semiotics and poetics defines the “stylistic challenge” of translation. By questioning both the arbitrariness of the sign and the linear nature of the signifier, Jakobson manages to analyze the linguistic sign in a broader range to include the literary language, dealing with syntactic and stylistic effects. According to Jakobson, the syntagmatic and paradigmatic axes are independent, making it possible to represent expressive effects and values – through the so-called “figures of grammar” and “figures of sound”. Thus, it becomes feasible to evaluate the “stylistic challenge”, providing analytical tools to search for equivalences, analogies, etc., ways of “translating”/“transposing” literary languages. However, Jakobson’s theory does not deal with other core issues in literary translation, such as the criteria to explain aesthetic preferences in time (period styles) and the means to select authoritative literary works (canonicity).