THE INTERPRETERS AND THE HISTORICAL FORMATION OF BRAZIL: THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES OF A FORGOTTEN HISTORY

Abstract Brazil’s historical formation owes very much to the indispensable work of interpreters since the so-called ‘discovery’ until well advanced the 19th century. In this paper, we highlight the necessity of giving more visibility to interpreters and their contribution to Brazil’s cultural and linguistic history, in order to allow us to draw a more trustworthy picture of the complex relations between cultures, peoples and languages that characterized the country’s first four centuries. To do so, we emphasize the role these cultural agents have played for a re-writing of the translation history in Brazil. These agent, left aside or even invisible in general historiography, become here fundamental to the historical formation of Brazil in all its phases.

摘要：巴西的历史建构，自所谓的"发现"时代直至19世纪中后期，始终有赖于译员们不可或缺的工作。本文旨在强调，为了能够更可靠地勾勒出塑造巴西前四百年历史的文化、族群与语言间的复杂关系图景，我们亟需提升译员群体及其对巴西文化与语言史的贡献的关注度。为此，我们着重阐述了这些文化行动者在重写巴西翻译史进程中所发挥的关键作用。这些在一般史学叙事中被忽视乃至彻底隐身的文化行动者，如今在巴西历史发展的所有阶段中都成为了核心要素。