INA CÉSAIRE AND THE MARTINICAN CREOLE FOLKTALES: TRANSLATION CHALLENGES

ABSTRACT This article presents a translation project from French to Portuguese of the book Contes de nuit et de jours aux Antilles (1989) from the Martinican ethnologist and writer Ina Césaire and the reflections on the translation of these folktales. The work is the result of Césaire as an ethnologist, gathering 14 Creole oral folktales from Martinique that were transcribed from recordings done between the years of 1975 and 1988 in the island's countryside. The aim of the article is to present the author and her work and to trace a short panorama of the literary history and cultural identity in Martinique. It also aims to reflect on the orality and the Creole imagery, as they are strongly present features in the tales.