Potiki in Portuguese: language hybridity and the pitfalls of paratext

Abstract

This article looks at the Portuguese translation of Patricia Grace’s Potiki, and more specifically at the paratextual elements that it contains, as a response to the linguistic hybridity of its source text. Potiki incorporates Māori elements in its mostly English-language text in a way that is common in Māori fiction writing these days, but which was groundbreaking at the time of its release, in 1986. The Portuguese translation’s decision to include paratextual information clarifying the meaning of words and expressions, which is absent from English-language publications, can be considered controversial and, moreover, runs counter to contemporary approaches to hybrid linguistic features in fictional texts.