Cosa c’è di sbagliato in Agostino? Un’analisi della traduzione portoghese del romanzo moraviano

Although Alberto Moravia’s novel "Agostino" was published in a year of strong socio–political turmoil (1944), the main theme revolves around the self-discovery of Agostino’s adolescent sexuality and his realisation that his own mother “is a woman”. A novel that explores the problematic relationship between purity and corruption of the spirit present in the transformations of society at the time, torn between a crisis of the bourgeoisie and the attraction of what is forbidden, in a way exposed, affirmed and authorised by the poorer social condition. All these aspects make "Agostino" a great novel, but at the same time, an uncomfortable text, stimulating contradictory sensations that the Salazar regime considered inappropriate as a text for Portuguese citizens. The aim is to explore and analyse the translation choices made by the writer and poet Gomes Ferreira, translator of "Agostino", the first version of which, from 1956, was censored and seized by the PIDE–DGS.