The following article examines the political potential of the intimate, affective translation pra... more The following article examines the political potential of the intimate, affective translation practices of Portuguese lesbian feminist activists in the publications Organa (1990–1992) and Lilás (1993–2002). Both publications, which I analyze through the rubric of the countercultural genre of “zine” or “fanzine,” arose in response to the repression and invisibilization that Portuguese lesbians faced, from criminalization and censorship at the hands of the fascist Estado Novo [New State] dictatorship (1933–1974) to exclusion from post-1974 feminist groups. Disconnected from any notion of lesbian identity and isolated from each other, the first lesbian activists turned toward experiences and connections abroad to build political consciousness. Using the self-published periodicals Organa and Lilás as their principal organizational tools, they could translate and circulate texts by lesbian feminist authors from countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. In doing so, they simultaneously created an open, egalitarian “lesbian-feminist counterpublic” (McKinney 2020, 19), allowing lesbians to meet each other on and between the publications’ pages through collaboration and expressions of desire. By analyzing the translational practices evident in the content, construction, and dissemination of Organa and Lilás, I identify and elaborate on a translation practice rooted in urgency, intimacy, and affectivity. Through the example of Portuguese lesbian feminism, I suggest that translation, far more than being a linguistic exercise or a transfer of information, has the capacity to be a tool for community-building and consciousness-raising, especially within groups that face marginalization and oppression.
Excerpts of COUP: Anthology-Manifesto, a radical response to the 2016 impeachment of Brazil’s for... more Excerpts of COUP: Anthology-Manifesto, a radical response to the 2016 impeachment of Brazil’s former president Dilma Rousseff, appeared in English for the first time in Barricade: A Journal of Antifascism and Translation in June 2020. During the editorial process for the English translation, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the United States, revealing in stark relief the reality of income inequality and white supremacy rampant in the country, and late capitalism’s inability – and unwillingness – to properly address it. COUP, in the original Portuguese, was born out of 2016 Brazil’s political reality, and its English counterpart was similarly informed by the conditions that led to its translation. Purportedly antifascist academics must identify and deconstruct fascism in their work and themselves by applying both antifascist theory and practice to their approach. By drawing from the research of theorists such as Gayatri Spivak, Umberto Eco, Freula Fernández, Maria Tymoczko, and Annarita Taronna, supplemented by a personal interview with Brazilian author Ana Rüsche, and incorporating an analysis of contemporary Brazilian and United States politics in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the present work seeks to examine the immediacy of this deconstruction and how it manifests in the translation and editing process.
The following article examines the political potential of the intimate, affective translation pra... more The following article examines the political potential of the intimate, affective translation practices of Portuguese lesbian feminist activists in the publications Organa (1990–1992) and Lilás (1993–2002). Both publications, which I analyze through the rubric of the countercultural genre of “zine” or “fanzine,” arose in response to the repression and invisibilization that Portuguese lesbians faced, from criminalization and censorship at the hands of the fascist Estado Novo [New State] dictatorship (1933–1974) to exclusion from post-1974 feminist groups. Disconnected from any notion of lesbian identity and isolated from each other, the first lesbian activists turned toward experiences and connections abroad to build political consciousness. Using the self-published periodicals Organa and Lilás as their principal organizational tools, they could translate and circulate texts by lesbian feminist authors from countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. In doing so, they simultaneously created an open, egalitarian “lesbian-feminist counterpublic” (McKinney 2020, 19), allowing lesbians to meet each other on and between the publications’ pages through collaboration and expressions of desire. By analyzing the translational practices evident in the content, construction, and dissemination of Organa and Lilás, I identify and elaborate on a translation practice rooted in urgency, intimacy, and affectivity. Through the example of Portuguese lesbian feminism, I suggest that translation, far more than being a linguistic exercise or a transfer of information, has the capacity to be a tool for community-building and consciousness-raising, especially within groups that face marginalization and oppression.
Excerpts of COUP: Anthology-Manifesto, a radical response to the 2016 impeachment of Brazil’s for... more Excerpts of COUP: Anthology-Manifesto, a radical response to the 2016 impeachment of Brazil’s former president Dilma Rousseff, appeared in English for the first time in Barricade: A Journal of Antifascism and Translation in June 2020. During the editorial process for the English translation, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the United States, revealing in stark relief the reality of income inequality and white supremacy rampant in the country, and late capitalism’s inability – and unwillingness – to properly address it. COUP, in the original Portuguese, was born out of 2016 Brazil’s political reality, and its English counterpart was similarly informed by the conditions that led to its translation. Purportedly antifascist academics must identify and deconstruct fascism in their work and themselves by applying both antifascist theory and practice to their approach. By drawing from the research of theorists such as Gayatri Spivak, Umberto Eco, Freula Fernández, Maria Tymoczko, and Annarita Taronna, supplemented by a personal interview with Brazilian author Ana Rüsche, and incorporating an analysis of contemporary Brazilian and United States politics in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the present work seeks to examine the immediacy of this deconstruction and how it manifests in the translation and editing process.
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Papers by Grace Holleran