Shakespeare in Brazilian Portuguese: Hamlet as a case in point

Abstract

Any discussion about the modern reception of Shakespearean dramaturgy has necessarily to deal with the dual nature that it has acquired since the Elizabethan period. While Elizabethans filled the theaters to hear theatrical performances, post-Renaissance admirers of Shakespeare can choose either to read his plays as literary works or see them as they are staged in theaters around the world. Translators of his works are thus faced with the initial choice of leaning towards either the page or the stage, which will affect the meter, register, diction, and syntax used. Stage-oriented renderings can be in verse, provided that the lines are not too long. Also, such translations—in prose or in verse— tend to avoid scholarly diction and unorthodox word order. Although most translations for the page eventually come out in book form, this does not mean that all published translations are necessarily pageoriented texts, or unfit for performance.