Translations and new translations of foreign classics
VUB-IIC (Italian Cultural Institute), Brussels, 7 november 2018

Italy publishes new translations of foreign classics more often than any other European country. The fact that the Italian language seems to “expire” within a few decades shows its lexical mobility. This conference aims to focus on this specific phenomenon resorting really in the least to the theories of the translation studies: even though these critical tools are necessary for the translator’s cultural baggage, they cannot substitute his/her ear, which remains essential to capture the echo emanated from the original text.

The analysis of these new translations of foreign classics of modern and contemporary literature will focuses on the real practice of translation: some of the best Italian translators of world-renowned classics will be invited to explain their linguistics choices in order to “rejuvenate” the Italian language and in order to know how to combine linguistics needs and publishing strategies. A special “Dutch focus” will explore translations from Dutch into Italian and vice versa.

Planned program

1. Ilide Carmignani
Gabriel GARCIA MARQUEZ, Cien años de soledad [1967] (Cent’anni di solitudine (Mondadori 2017).

2. Franca Cavagnoli
James JOYCE, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man [1916] (Un ritratto dell’artista da giovane, Feltrinelli 2016).

3. Fabio Pedone & Enrico Terrinoni (Università per Stranieri di Perugia)
James JOYCE, Finnegans Wake [1939] (Finnegans Wake, Mondadori 2017).

4. Franco Paris
(translator of Hugo Claus)

5. Frans Denissen
(translator in Dutch of Leonardo Sciascia, Umberto Eco, Carlo Emilio Gadda, etc.)

6. Stefania Ricciardi (VUB-KU Leuven)
Marguerite YOURCENAR, Denier du rêve [1934 and 1959] (Moneta del sogno, Bompiani 2017)