Translating Queerness in "My Shadow is Purple" (2022), a book by Scott Stuart

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to present a translation with commentary from English to Portuguese of the poetry book My Shadow is Purple (2022) by Scott Stuart, devised for children and centered on the issue of the non-binary gender identity performed by the main character. In parallel, the underlying objective of this study consists in analyzing the ludic language it uses to include young audiences. A literary analysis of the text was then carried out, highlighting the relevance of broadening the access to queer literature through the translation proposed here. The methodology follows the parameters for translation with commentary proposed by Williams and Chesterman (2002), serving as a basis for the structure of the study, as well as the guidelines for translating children’s literature specifically based on Landers (2001), O’Sullivan (2006), Tu An (2020), Queiroga and Fernandes (2016). Finally, due to the content of the book, the concepts addressed by queer theory (Stockton, 2023) serve as a foundation to justify the importance of transmitting the theme covered by My Shadow is Purple (2022) to another language. At the end, it was possible to achieve the objectives by following the strategies, thus reaching an accomplished translation in accordance with the theoretical basis and structure chosen.