Translation in Contact Zones: Decoloniality and Resistance in Darcie Little Badger's Elatsoe

Abstract

From the perspective of decolonial thought, the coloniality of power is not restricted to the colonial period and colonialism itself, but persists as a structure that permeates social, epistemological, and cultural relations in the present. In opposition to this hegemonic, European-based model, literature can act as a space of resistance and of valorization of other knowledges, even though the colonized subject is often constrained to write in the colonizer's language. In light of this, this paper analyzes Darcie Little Badger's Elatsoe, aiming to investigate how the Lipan Apache author preserves and gives voice to the subjectivity and knowledge of her people while constructing a narrative in a hegemonic language — English. Furthermore, the article examines the strategies employed in Bruna Miranda's translation into Portuguese, in order to assess to what extent the choices made by the Brazilian edition approximate or distance themselves from possible decolonizing propositions present in the original work.