ROLAND BARTHES IN BRAZIL, BY TRANSLATIONS

Abstract

This article studies the reception to the work of Roland Barthes in Brazil through the translations of his books and essays. More specifically, and according to the Theory of Literary Polysystem, by Itamar Even-Zohar, it retraces the history of Barthes trans-lations in its relations with the most important Brazilian intellect-tual scenarios for his work, the 70’s and 2000’s: at first, the works of the French writer that best met the desire of Brazilian intellect-tuals for theories came from linguistic studies, versatile enough to serve as an analytical basis for the reading of the most varied objects; in a second moment, interest in Barthes found in the canonization imposed by the postmodernity thought the justifica-tion for a review of his work. Both in the first and the second moments, the translations of Barthesian texts reflect different images of the French writer, built by Brazilian intellectuals, which show the characteristics of each of these historic cultural mo-ments.