Linguistic features in Machado de Assis and in the Italian translation of Esaú e Jacó

Abstract

The study presented here came about as a result of reflecting on the text of Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) novel Esaú e Jacó (1904), on the occasion of the translation work I carried out for Lorenzo de’ Medici Press and published in 2022, under the title Esaù e Giacobbe. From an initial synoptic view of language in Machado’s literary production, conducted in the light of critical studies and the author’s own statements on the socio-political value of language itself, and after a look at the translations of Machado’s work to date published in Italy, we will descend into the particulars of Esaú and Jacó, analyzing some representative passages of the author’s linguistic profile; finally, we will examine some of the translation choices I undertook. The goal is to show that the process that led to the metatext, which is the first Italian edition of this work, was carried out with a particular focus on the crucial value that language takes on in this novel, in which Machado reflects on late 19th-century Brazil, the high society of its then capital, Rio de Janeiro, its culture, its history, and its post-independence identity.