What Agatha Christie can teach us about Brazil: translated literature and cultural dynamics

Among new and open research options, Agatha Christie’s works and their different translations are a topic that cannot be confined to either the field of Comparative Literature or to Translation Studies, and may still be a stumbling block. On the other hand, these books may lead, for example, to privileged linguistic and sociological insights. The present study is set within the particular framework questions of Christie’s writings and their translations in Latin America and particularly Brazil. The aim of this article is to describe the results of a macro- and micro-level analysis focusing on representations of Christie’s oral discourse in two different Brazilian translations released by the same publishing house during the same historical period. Christie’s work is contextualized in the Brazilian cultural dynamics, and a cultural exchange between Latin America and Europe (with Christie’s works playing the role of intercultural mediators) is clearly demonstrated.