CALL FOR PAPERS
Matraga Journal invites submissions for the next issues. Matraga, published by the Graduate Program in Letters at UERJ, is a senior publication, aiming at promoting a critical review on issues in the fields of Literature and Linguistics studies. Original papers and book reviews in Portuguese, English, Spanish or French are welcome. Papers are submitted to double-blind peer review and must strictly follow Matraga Journal guidelines for paper submission.
Read bellow the complete call for papers. Submissions are online.
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MATRAGA 67
This non-thematic issue is devoted to Linguistics and Literary Studies.
THEME
Matraga Journal welcomes original research papers and book reviews in the fields of Linguistics and Literary Studies.
EDITORS:
Patrícia Marouvo (UERJ) and Julia Scamparini (UERJ)
SUBMISSION DATE:
Submission of papers and book reviews: June 30th, 2025
Issue Publication: January 2026
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MATRAGA 66
This issue is devoted to Linguistics Studies, with the theme Literary translation: canon, nation, and gender studies.
THEME
Over the last fifty years, translation theories have evolved in various directions. Marked by the so-called Cultural Turn and influenced by post-structuralism, these theories reached a significant turning point with Jacques Derrida. The previously dominant logocentric approach to translation gave way to the more fluid and unstructured writing style of the Franco-Maghrebian theorist, whose work centered on deconstructing the text in relation to the Other. This shift has profoundly affected the relationship between original and translated texts and the interaction between texts originating from different times and contexts.
Similarly, Antoine Berman (1984, 1991) introduced an ethical and political dimension to his translation theory, which had a transformative impact on the field and has strongly resonated with Brazilian scholars. Central to Berman's theory is his critique of what he terms 'ethnocentric' translation, which undermines the culture of the Other—the foreign and 'strange'—in favor of the target country's culture, often a dominant nation. Berman advocates for a foreignizing approach to translation, preserving the unique characteristics of the original culture. This approach contrasts with reader-friendly translation practices but does not fully address the linguistic and cultural complexities inherent in the original text.
Lawrence Venuti (1995, 1998) builds on Berman's work by emphasizing how, for decades, the United States has cultivated a culture that renders translators invisible through the promotion of a regime of fluency. In other words, translators are expected to provide their readers with an illusion of transparency, producing prose that is "natural," "elegant," and "lovely." Venuti (1995) also argues that, even in cases where the ideal of fluency does not dominate a nation's publishing market, every translation is inherently violent. He introduces the concept of "symptomatic reading," revealing how translations follow historical patterns shaped by laws of ethnocentric violence, which seek to erase features of so-called developing countries that could disrupt the status quo of Global North nations. This practice is crucial, as the relationship between North and South has always been unilateral—or, as Evando Nascimento (2021, p. 195) asserts: "[...] the dialogue between North and South never truly occurred; it has remained a monologue of the North with itself, whose discourses inevitably echo, sooner or later, on the southern side of the Equator." Therefore, there is both a choice of what to translate and how to translate it. Which Brazil is selected for translation? And how does it appear in the bookstores of France, England, and the United States?
Finally, Olga Castro and María Laura Spoturno (2020) emphasize that feminism has been advocating for a critical and pluralistic approach from researchers in developing transnational feminist translation studies. The goal of this debate is fundamentally intersectional, seeking to "facilitate cross-border alliances that challenge asymmetries—especially among women—as a preliminary step toward transforming reality and fostering debates that oppose colonial violence" (Castro & Spoturno, 2020, p. 14). For this reason, feminist translation studies align with the broader discussions of canon, nation, and gender that have been central to Translation Studies in recent decades.
We invite authors interested in discussing literary translation through the lenses of canon, nation, and gender studies, as well as those who analyze various translation strategies between different language pairs, to submit their contributions to this issue of Matraga.
EDITORS:
Wagner Monteiro (UERJ) e Rebeca Hernández (Universidad de Salamanca)
SUBMISSION DATE:
Submission of papers and book reviews: March 31st, 2025
Issue Publication: September 2025
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Papers might not exceed 25 pages.
Book reviews might not exceed 8 pages.
Read the author guidelines for more information on submission.
Submission of papers and book reviews: January 31st, 2018
Issue Publication: May 2018
