Freshwater: uma comédia de Virginia Woolf: uma farsa modernista em tradução

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation offers a study and an original translation of the two versions of the Modernist farce Freshwater: a Comedy (1923;1935) – hereafter Freshwater: uma comédia de Virginia Woolf –, the only theatrical experiment written by the English writer Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), whose text has not been translated into Brazilian Portuguese yet. Be it due to the writer’s own concerns about the value of her play or to the fact that it was written to entertain friends at a party, Freshwater does not appear as an object of critical analysis among most of the studies dedicated to Virginia Woolf. It is a consensus among scholars that Woolf’s writings align aesthetics with politics (GOLDMAN, 1998; FROULA, 2005; SELLERS, 2010; PINHO, 2015; OLIVEIRA, 2020) and that her modernist writings, as well as her hoaxes and experimental performances, call into question so called absolute truths of Western thought in relation to gender, class and race. Thus, this study aims at thinking through the experimental languages of Bloomsbury (GOLDMAN, 2004; PINHO, 2015) from a contemporary perspective (WOOLF, 1925b; AGAMBEN, 2009a) in order to include Freshwater in these conversations, for, despite being in accordance with Woolf’s political and aesthetic project, this farce still occupies a marginal place in critical debates. Furthermore, aligning itself with modernist theatricality studies (FARFAN, 2004; KOPPEN, 2009; PUTZEL, 2012), this dissertation also intends to unpack the dramatic quality of Woolf’s writings, which articulate performative acts of laughter and mockery (BERGSON, 1900; WOOLF, 1905c; PINHO, 2020b) in order to correct and cast doubt over meanings. Finally, besides the first annotated translation of the two versions of the referred farce, this dissertation also offers critical comments on experimental adaptations of Woolf’s play produced in the USA, France and Brazil, since Freshwater has attracted more attention from stage productions than from theoretical research.