Literatura chinesa no estado novo: (não-)tradução, (auto)censura e resistência

This thesis examines the Portuguese translations of Chinese literature published in book form in the Portuguese New State (1933-1974). Beginning with the history of Chinese-Portuguese literary non-translation—a phenomenon perhaps related to the cultural distance between Portugal and China—this study questions the ideological reasons why more translations of Chinese literature were published during the period of the dictatorial and anti-communist regime, particularly under its Censorship. Considering the New State’s anti-communism, the dubious effectiveness of the repressive book Censorship and the generative aspect of censorship, we conducted an external history study with 19 translations included in the compiled catalogue, along with a textual analysis of three translations (representative of the three moments of reaction through translation of Chinese literature in Portugal during the New State). These studies reveal three ideological factors that may have influenced the translation of Chinese literature during the New State, which we categorise as feminism, universalism and communism. In order to mask these ideologies which could be censored, the translations resorted to the construction of an apolitical peritextual framework, but not to textual modification. Consequently, in these translations of Chinese literature there may have been a form of silent resistance, mediated through self-censorship.