Bassi, Serena A. (2012) Italy through the mirror of translation : place, culture and difference in the twenty-first century book market. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis asks how stereotypical images of a foreign country are reinforced or contested through translation in the context of the contemporary consumer book market. Taking Italy and the British publishing market as its focus, it sets out to examine the translation process for one popular genre of Italian fiction and two Italian bestsellers published in Britain after 2000. Gomorra by Roberto Saviano (2006) and Cento colpi di spazzola prima di andare a dormire by Melissa P. (2003) and the so-called ‘new Italian crime fiction’, are three recent Italian publishing phenomena that have been selected for translation into English. Once translated and distributed in the British market, they attracted significant commercial and critical attention in the literary field. How important was the association with stereotypical images of Italy in determining the success of these texts in Britain, a market that is famously resistant to translation? How was the idea of Italy re-negotiated and re-imagined throughout the translation process?
In order to provide an answer to the above questions, both the translation and the paratranslation of the Italian texts are investigated. The translation of new Italian crime fiction is examined with a focus on the Italian and the British history of the genre and on its paratranslation. The fascinating implications of the new branding of the author Roberto Saviano, which emerged in the British literary field when Gomorra was translated into English, are explored in the context of both translation and paratranslation. Finally, in analysing the translation of Cento colpi I have focused on the work of the translator, Lawrence Venuti, and particularly on the implicationsthat his ideology of translation has on the idea of Italy and on that of “cultural difference” as they emerge from the target text.
This thesis adopts an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, in which theoretical understandings from Translation Studies, Italian Studies, studies of the contemporary book market and media culture are integrated. It uses translation as a method to look into the workings of the contemporary book market and, more generally, to shed light on contemporary representations of Italy that circulate in the large mass mediated textual space through the mirror of translation.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DG Italy P Language and Literature > PQ Romance literatures Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > Z004 Books. Writing. Paleography
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Italian fiction -- Translations into English, Publishers and publishing -- Italy, Book industries and trade -- Italy, Translating and interpreting
Official Date:	September 2012
Dates:	Date Event September 2012 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Italian
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Polezzi, Loredana
Extent:	308 leaves : illustrations.
Language:	eng

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