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A Discussion About Culture And Translation In The Play The Glass Menagerie, By Tennessee Williams

There are several aspects involved in the process of writing a book. Opposed to what some people may think of such trade, it is not simply the easiest and most accessible manner to express our feelings. On the contrary, it demands a hard work and a lot of reflections which come from our personal and collective experiences. Thus, it is possible to state that every content in Literature is the result of a reflective labor together with the art of making use of reality through its own influences, namely, the author's cultural background – his/her habits, beliefs, language, and lifestyle. For this reason, one can always read a North American book and then contrast it to other distinct ways of writing. Hence, the main purpose of this essay is to discuss the adaptation of The Glass Menagerie (O Zoológico de Vidro), by Tennessee Williams, into Portuguese, with special attention to the actresses responsible for playing the characters Amanda and Laura Wingfield. What cultural differences can we see between the North American and the Brazilian versions of The Glass Menagerie? Where do these differences come from? However, before discussing these questions, I will present some definitions of culture, interculturality, and translation, in order to support my subsequent viewpoints.

According to Dereti (1980), culture is everything that human beings have created, discovered, constructed, transformed, and developed in the course of time. In this way, culture could be also defined as "an amount of knowledge, beliefs, artistic and moral principles, laws, habits, as well as the abilities acquired by humans as members of a social order" (DEMO, 1987, p. 61). By means of Banks and McGee (1989), culture does not refer to its artifacts, tools, or other cultural elements, but how the members of a determined group interpret, use, and perceive them. In turn, Albó (2005) defines culture as a concept related to identity. Like this, he asserts that people tend to recognize themselves as parts of a group due to the common characteristics they share with its other members and also to the differences they cultivate in relation to others. Additionally, after pointing out some definitions of culture, Gomes (2008) displays its anthropologic concept. Consistent with his words, culture is the way people act in society, which gives the sense of a coherent system of thinking, doing, positioning before the absolute, and finally, reproducing ourselves. As a final example, later than exposing one of the first notions of culture suggested by Edward Burnett Tylor, Laraia (2004) warns us by saying that each cultural system is always subject to change. Like so, understanding this dynamic "is important to reduce the conflicts between different generations and to avoid stigmatized behaviors". The same way it is crucial to comprehend the differences among people from different cultures, "it is necessary to understand the differences which happen within a distinct system" (LARAIA, 2008, p. 101).

Regarding all these considerations about culture, we can think of the following questions: Is it possible to dialogue with difference? Can two different groups dialogue with each other and contribute to each other's improvement? This, as some researchers have argued, refers to the process of interculturality. But, what does it mean? In agreement with Albó (2005), interculturality occurs among social groups and people from different cultures. Also, the author presents the difference between positive and negative intercultural contact. The first one comes to pass when there is a kind of destruction of what is culturally divergent – that is, when interaction causes its reduction or assimilation. On the other hand, the second type of intercultural contact happens when it triggers respect toward the different and consequently promotes its improvement through a mutual learning process. But, does interculturality involve only respect toward the different? Concerning this hypothesis in the context of education, Walsh (2001, p. 10-11) states that interculturality is a process of negotiating and translating "where social, economic, and political inequalities, and relations and conflicts related to social power are not kept hidden, but, on the contrary, are recognized and confronted". In this perspective, we can assert that interculturality presupposes much more than respect, since it defends, for the most part, the recognition of the other.

Furthermore, with the purpose of pointing out the differences between the play The Glass Menagerie and its adaptation to Brazilian context, it becomes important to concentrate on some theories on the subject of translation. How does culture influence the way people translate? In a more restricted viewpoint, how many changes occur in two different adaptations of the same play? Nevertheless, before discussing these questions, it is necessary to characterize some traditional approaches to translation studies, that is, literal (word-for-word) and free (sense-for-sense) translation, as well as to problematize the postmodern concept of translation, namely, the one anchored in what has been called deconstruction theory.  As Munday (2001) says, literal translation refers to the act of translating a certain text into the target language exactly as it is expressed in the original version; in this case, the translator looks for words which correspond to the ones used by the first author. On the other hand, free translation happens when the translator does not get attached to the words and structures of the first version; for this reason, he/she usually changes some constructions in the text, even though he always tries to preserve its "original" meaning.  Differently from these approaches, the postmodern concept of translation is related to the principles of deconstruction theory. In particular, this conjecture stands against the logocentric thought, which refers to the idea of a world shaped by single and fixed meanings. With reference to language, the deconstructivist philosophy attempts to demonstrate that any text is a disconnected whole, but conversely keeps quite a lot of contradictory meanings, and also that any text offers more than a single interpretation. Regarding so, Arrojo (1992) states that any translation reflects, besides the subject-translator, the historical moment and the cultural community that produced it. Thus, translators are recognized as authors, to be precise, as meaning producers, since they are expected to dialogue with two different cultures in order to express a certain message.

Supported by this whole theoretical background, if we believe that translation is always the product of a cultural exchange, it becomes possible to compare the performance of the actresses who play Amanda and Laura Wingfield in the North American and Brazilian versions of The Glass Menagerie. However, with the purpose of doing so, it is essential to state that, among several aspects, there are some which are commonly harder to translate in a play, such as the characters' accent and linguistic varieties, as well as their mannerisms and the socio-historical moment wherein the story takes place. Accordingly, it could not be different with The Glass Menagerie, which presents us a typical family from the South of the United States trying to accomplish the American dream of happiness, peace, and richness at the time of The Great Depression. Therefore, how could a Brazilian adaptation of such environment to faithfully represent all the aspects created by the first author, in this case, by Tennessee Williams? In fact, can we read the play's original version and expect the same impressions from its adaptation to Brazilian context? What about the Southern accent, how could it be represented by Brazilian actors and actresses? What about the feeling of loss which took the Americans over from 1929 to 1939, how could a Brazilian play writer portray such a fact so the spectators recognize themselves in the story and simultaneously understand that it happened in a different context?

In order to exemplify these questions, we can take as reference the two referred versions of The Glass Menagerie. In the first one, produced by Anthony Harvey in 1973, we can see that both Amanda and Laura are very well interpreted by Katharine Hepburn and Joanna Miles respectively. In accordance with the cultural background suggested by the play, they seem to be very near to its characters, both in terms of reproducing their accent and linguistic varieties, and their mannerisms. For instance, when we read the scenes in which Amanda takes part, we get the impression that she is always talking too much so as to escape from reality. In the play's American adaptation for TV, we have the confirmation of this idea, seeing that Katharine Hepburn tries to faithfully reproduce even the gestures given to Amanda by Tennessee Williams – such as the way she behaves and talks to other people.  In relation to Laura, it happens quite the same, for the reason that Joanna Miles builds up her performance with a good sense of kindness, sensitivity, and strangeness, which combines with the metaphorical image of the Blue Roses; as a result, the Laura from the TV seems to be very much similar to the one from the play. Conversely, if we compare this North American version to its Brazilian adaptation with the actresses Cássia Kiss and Karen Coelho playing Amanda and Laura Wingfield in that order, we will be able to see many differences between their performances, the performances of the other actresses, and the characters' personality. Cássia Kiss, for instance, looks like a different Amanda, given that she exaggerates up to a certain point in her mannerisms – after all, she is a Brazilian actress. On the other hand, Karen Coelho presents us a demented Laura, which does not comply with her characteristics in the play. Like this, how could we see and/or define these divergences based on the theories about culture, interculturality, and translation?

On the word of Karamanian (2002), as translators

"we are faced with an alien culture that requires that its message be conveyed in anything but an alien way. That culture expresses its idiosyncrasies in a way that is 'culture-bound': cultural words, proverbs and of course idiomatic expressions, whose origin and use are intrinsically and uniquely bound to the culture concerned. So we are called upon to do a cross-cultural translation whose success will depend on our understanding of the culture we are working with".

In this way, it can be affirmed that it is not possible to simply transfer the meaning of a message from a given language to another, since there are a lot of cultural aspects to be considered in such process. With regards to The Glass Menagerie, for example, how could the accent of the characters be reproduced in the Brazilian context without loosing its originality? How could the metaphor Blue Roses be transferred to Brazilian Portuguese without loosing its significance? In the first case, the Southern accent from the United States could be represented through the Brazilian Northeast accent, namely, a kind of speech whose cultural representation is analogous to the one from the original version. In the second case, as Pleuresia (Pleurosys) does not rhyme with Rosas Azuis in Portuguese as it does in English, the Brazilian adaptation of the focused play opted to create another way to explain the presence of the nickname Blue Roses in the story; to be precise, instead of referring to it as an association with the disease Pleurosys, in Portuguese it was done a description of Laura's cheek as a consequence of her time with Pleuresia. Regarding these examples, it can concluded that culture is something very important in the process of translation, seeing that it determines how readers and spectators understand the content of the text and as such apprehend its meanings. Besides, with reference to The Glass Menagerie, it can be observed two theoretical perspectives in its translation, that is, interculturality and deconstruction. The first one happens for the reason that the Brazilian version of the play tries to constantly dialogue with the North American culture, which can be seen in the mannerisms of the characters Amanda and Laura Wingfield. On the other hand, the deconstructivist approach in translation can be visualized in the several attempts of the Brazilian adaptation to ressignify the original content of the play in other basis, that is, by means of other cultural representations (HALL, 2006).

To put it briefly, through this essay I intended to discuss some of the problems in translating the play The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, into Brazilian Portuguese, with special attention to the performance of the actresses who played the characters Amanda and Laura Wingfield in its North American and Brazilian versions. However, in order to do so, I opted to divide this text in two parts. Firstly, it was presented some theories about culture, interculturality, and translation. Secondly, it was discussed the cultural aspects involved in the adaptation of the focused play to the Brazilian context. One of the main reflections exposed throughout this text was the fact that every translation tends to ressignify the original version of a text, which in turn, is seen as something always incomplete and as such likely to be (re)constructed in other cultural basis. After all, since cultural meanings are created and transformed into the texture of the language, it can be asserted that the act of translating is nothing but an attempt to regard a certain culture with other eyes.

References

ALBÓ, X. Cultura, interculturalidade e inculturação. Palmas, Loyola, 2005.

ARROJO, R. (Org.). O signo desconstruído: implicações para a tradução, a leitura e o ensino. 1. ed. CAMPINAS: PONTES, 1992.

CANDAU, V. M. Direitos humanos, educação e interculturalidade: as tensões entre igualdade e diferença. In: Revista Brasileira de Educação. v. 13. n. 37. Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, 2008.

DEMO, P. Sociologia: uma introdução crítica. São Paulo: Atlas, 1987.

DERETTI, T. Cultura. In: Introdução à sociologia. Porto Alegre: FEPLAM, 1980, p. 17.

GOMES, M. P. Antropologia: ciência do homem: filosofia da cultura. São Paulo: Contexto, 2008.

HALL, S. A identidade cultural na pós-modernidade. Trad. Tomaz Tadeu da Silva e Guacira Lopes Louro. Rio de Janeiro: DP&A, 2006.

KARAMANIAN, A. P. Translation and Culture. In: Translation Journal, v.6, n. 1. 2002. Available at . Assessed in: Nov, 5th, 2009.

LARAIA, R. B. Cultura: um conceito antropológico. Rio de Janeiro:Jorge Zahar, 2008.

MUNDAY, J. Introducing translation studies: theories and applications. London: Routledge, 2001.

WALSH, C. La educación intercultural en la educación. Peru: Ministerio de Educación, 2001. Mimeografado.

About the Author

Marco Túlio de Urzêda Freitas is undergraduated in Letras (TEFL) at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG). Currently he is a student of the Masters' Course in Linguistic Studies at the UFG and works as an English teacher at two projects entailed to the same university: Language Center and Intercultural Teaching Course for Indigenous Teachers. Also, he takes part in two research groups: Studies in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching and Postmodern Linguistic Perspectives on Identity, Subjectivity, and Knowledge. His main academic interests are: Critical Foreign/English Language Teaching and its Implications to Critical-Reflective Education of English Teachers and Students, Intercultural Teaching of English, and Poststructuralist Topics Related to Language Education, such as Nation, Class, Race, Gender, Sexuality, Capitalism, Science, Colonialism, and Popular Culture.

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