A discourse of the body

Portuguese translation: um discurso do corpo

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

English term or phrase:	A discourse of the body
Portuguese translation:	um discurso do corpo
Entered by:	Silvia Aquino

22:04 Jun 10, 2012

English to Portuguese translations [PRO]
Philosophy

English term or phrase: A discourse of the body

O primeiro capítulo do livro The Ideology of the Aesthetic, de Terry Eagleton, começa com a frase "Aesthetics is born as a discourse of the body". Em uma edição brasileira, essa frase foi traduzida por "A Estética nasceu como um discurso sobre o corpo". Não deveria ser "um discurso do corpo?"

For those who do not know portuguese, the question would be like this: The first sentence in the first chapter of Terry Eagleton's book, The Ideology of the Aesthetic, reads "Aesthetics is born as a discourse of the body". Does the author mean that the body discourses, or does he mean that someone discourses about the body? In one portuguese translation, it got the latter meaning, which I think is not adequate.

I don't think it matters, but here's the whole paragraph:
"Aesthetics is born as a discourse of the body. In its original formulation by the
German philosopher Alexander Baumgarten, the term refers not in the first place
to art, but, as the Greek aisthesis would suggest, to the whole region of human
perception and sensation, in contrast to the more rarefied domain of conceptual
thought. The distinction which the term 'aesthetic' initially enforces in the mid-
eighteenth century is not one between 'art' and 'life, but between the material and
the immaterial: between things and thoughts, sensations and ideas, that which is
bound up with our creaturely life as opposed to that which conducts some
shadowy existence in the recesses of the mind. It is as though philosophy suddenly
wakes up to the fact that there is a dense, swarming territory beyond its own
mental enclave which threatens to fall utterly outside its sway. That territory is
nothing less than the whole of our sensate life together — the business of
affections and aversions, of how the world strikes the body on its sensory surfaces,
of that which takes root in the gaze and the guts and all that arises from our most
banal, biological insertion into the world. The aesthetic concerns this most gross
and palpable dimension of the human, which post-Cartesian philosophy, in some
curious lapse of attention, has somehow managed to overlook. It is thus the first
stirrings of a primitive materialism — of the body's long inarticulate rebellion
against the tyranny of the theoretical."

Daltro Borowski KudoZ activity Questions: 1 (none open) Answers: 1
Local time: 09:47

um discurso do corpo

Explanation:
É o que me parece mais adequado em função do texto.

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Note added at 10 hrs (2012-06-11 08:49:51 GMT)
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Reading the last sentence of the material posted I am more convinced that the translation is "um discurso do corpo": "It is thus the first stirrings of a primitive materialism - of the body´s long inarticulate rebellion agains the tyranny of the theoretical."
A discourse on the body would translate into "um discurso sobre o corpo".

against the tyranny of the theoretical."

Selected response from:

Silvia Aquino
Brazil
Local time: 09:47

Grading comment

Obrigado, Silvia, e a todos. Eu acho que nem precisaria verificar o contexto, não é mesmo? Se a intenção do autor fosse dizer "sobre" ele teria usado a preposição "on".
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +4

um discurso do corpo

Silvia Aquino

um discurso sobre o corpo

Marlene Curtis

Answers

8 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

a discourse of the body

um discurso do corpo

Silvia Aquino
Brazil
Local time: 09:47
Native speaker of:

Portuguese
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

Obrigado, Silvia, e a todos. Eu acho que nem precisaria verificar o contexto, não é mesmo? Se a intenção do autor fosse dizer "sobre" ele teria usado a preposição "on".

18 mins confidence:

a discourse of the body um discurso sobre o corpo

Explanation:

discourse = To treat of something in writing and formally/to express one's self in oral discourse/to expose one's view.

A estética nasceu como um discurso sobre o corpo. Em sua
formulação original, pelo filósofo alemão Alexander Baumgarten,
o termo não se refere primeiramente à arte, mas, como o grego
‘aisthesis’, a toda região da percepção e sensação humana, em
contraste com o domínio mais rarefeito do pensamento conceitual.

http://www.cbce.org.br/cd/resumos/128.pdf

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Note added at 13 hrs (2012-06-11 11:08:54 GMT)
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A body does not discourse.

Marlene Curtis
United States
Local time: 08:47
Native speaker of:

Portuguese
PRO pts in category: 44

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Portuguese translation: um discurso do corpo

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