Translating Classic Fiction for Mass Markets

Abstract

This study examines the characteristics of the translations of the Clube do Livro, the first major book club in Brazil, which aimed at selling its low-cost issues to lower-middle-class and working-class readers who were not previously regular book buyers. Very little work has been done on translations directed at a popular market, surprisingly perhaps, when one thinks of both the enormous press runs and range of translated bestsellers, popular magazines, comics and book club issues.1 The article starts with a brief history of the Clube do Livro, followed by an examination of the way in which it was forced to make cuts and changes in its translations in order to avoid tough censorship at the end of the sixties and beginning of the seventies. It further examines the paternalistic and educational aspect of the book club, which often resulted in bland translations that ‘corrected’ any non-standard language in the original. Translations produced for the mass market, referred to here as ‘factory translation’, have specific production line characteristics; these are described in some detail. Finally, using the ideas of Janice Radway on romance fiction and of Michel de Certeau on popular culture, the conclusion looks positively at the Clube do Livro and stresses that the reader may use such texts for beneficial personal ends.

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