Modesto Carone (1937–2019) was a Brazilian writer and translator. He was born in

Sorocaba Sorocaba () is a municipality in the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. With over 723,000 inhabitants, it is the seventh-largest city in the state and the second-largest outside the Greater São Paulo region, ranking behind only Cam ...

, and completed his bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Law of Largo São Francisco (

Law School, University of São Paulo The Law School of the University of São Paulo (Portuguese: ''Faculdade de Direito da Universidade São Paulo'', or also ''Faculdade de Direito do Largo de São Francisco'') is an institution of higher education and research in the field of law l ...

) in the early 1960s. He moved to Austria in 1965, where he taught Brazilian language and culture at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

. On his return to Brazil, a few years later, he obtained a doctorate in Germanic letters from the

University of São Paulo The Universidade de São Paulo (, USP) is a public research university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, and the largest public university in Brazil. The university was founded on 25 January 1934, regrouping already existing schools in ...

, and eventually became a professor there. His literary debut occurred with ''As Marcas no Real'' (1979), and two years later Carone began his career at the Institute of Letters of the

State University of Campinas The University of Campinas (), commonly called Unicamp, is a public research university in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil. Established in 1962, Unicamp was designed from scratch as an integrated Research institute, researc ...

(

Unicamp The University of Campinas (), commonly called Unicamp, is a public research university in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil. Established in 1962, Unicamp was designed from scratch as an integrated Research institute, researc ...

), where he remained for 15 years. From 2000, he worked as a visiting professor at the Department of Literary Theory at the Faculty of Letters at USP. Carone is best known as being the premier translator of

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

into the

Brazilian Portuguese language Brazilian Portuguese (; ; also known as pt-BR) is the set of Variety (linguistics), varieties of Portuguese language native to Brazil. It is spoken by almost all of the 203 million inhabitants of Brazil and widely across the Brazilian diaspora ...

. He began the task with ''Metamorphosis'' in 1983, and completed translating the Czech writer's oeuvre in 2002. He also won renown for his own original work, notably winning the

Premio Jabuti The and its twin the are sedans sold in Japan from 2001 to 2021 by Toyota. The sedans are designated as a compact car by Japanese dimension regulations and the exterior dimensions do not change with periodic updates. Unlike Toyota's other ve ...

for the novel ''Resumos de Ana'' (1998), and the APCA 2009 award for best essay/criticism with ''Kafka's Lesson''.

References

Brazilian writers 1937 births 2019 deaths University of São Paulo alumni Academic staff of the University of São Paulo Academic staff of the State University of Campinas People from Sorocaba 20th-century Brazilian translators {{Brazil-writer-stub