Abstract
This dissertation uses translation as a tool and a mediation to understand lesbian interventions in the Portuguese alternative press, beginning during the right-wing Estado Novo dictatorship (1933–1974) and culminating in the advent of the country’s first lesbian-exclusive periodicals, Organa (1990–1992) and Lilás (1993–2002). In my discussion, I explore the idea of a lesbian translation practice that prioritizes political urgency, intimacy, and community building, resulting in a form of activist translation that challenges binaries likehetero/homosexual, male/female, and source/translation, and that creates tangible progress toward LGBTQ+ liberation. The alternative press is an especially potent medium for this type of translation, not only due to its association with countercultural political movements, but also to the freedom of expression it affords and the communities it nurtures. Through tracing a genealogy of alternative media in Portugal and analyzing the ways in which the “translation” of foreign influence impacted feminist and LGBTQ+ activism, especially in the wake of the Estado Novo, I identify a translative character in the Portuguese alternative press, and particularly in Organa and Lilás. I also examine lesbian presence in periodicals printed outside of Portugal (especially Les Lesbianaires in Belgium) and propose that networks of affectivity, spurred by translation, allowed Portuguese lesbians much more presence than they have previously been thought to have during that period. This argument is supported by the work of artists Isabel de Sá and Graça Martins, who were actively creating work with queer sensibilities in Portugal the decade before Organa came out. My conclusions are supported by findings from several archives dedicated to queer and feminist memory, especially the Centro de Documentação Gonçalo Dinis (ILGA – Portugal), and oral testimony from Organa co-founder Filomena Loureiro, Lilás cofounder Maria.