Brigid Maher

Recreation and style : translating humorous literature in Italian and English

This volume explores the translation of literary and humorous style, including comedy, irony, satire, parody and the grotesque, from Italian to English and vice versa. The innovative and interdisciplinary theoretical approach places the focus on creativity and playful rewriting as central to the translation of humour. Analysing translations of works by Rosa Cappiello, Dario Fo, Will Self and Anthony Burgess, the author explores literary translation as a form of exchange between translated and receiving cultures. In a final case study she recounts her own strategies in translating the work of Milena Agus, exploring humour, creation and recreation from the perspective of the translator and demonstrating the benefits of critical engagement with both the theory and the practice of translation. This unique contribution to the study of humour and literary style in translation will be of interest to scholars of translation, humour, comparative literature, and literary and cultural studies.

‘La dolce vita’ meets ‘the nature of evil’:: the paratextual positioning of Italian crime fiction in English translation

ABSTRACT In this article I explore the way Italian crime fiction is presented to prospective Anglophone readers through paratextual bindings: titles, cover images and blurbs. I focus in particular on the way Italian settings are – variously – described, elucidated, emphasised and promoted, as publishers and their marketing teams seek to place a text within a space of familiarity or exoticism. Through the very act of circulation across cultures and languages, new forms of national allegory are attributed to these crime novels, on the basis of the perceived needs and prior associations of their new readership.

The Voices of Suspense and Their Translation in Thrillers

Chantal Wright is assistant professor of translation as a literary practice in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick, and a visiting fellow in the School of Translation and Interpretation at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests lie with the theory and practice of literary translation, stylistics, and exophonic, migrant and intercultural literature, particularly in the German context. Her most recent publication is Yoko Tawada’s Portrait of a Tongue: An Experimental Translation (2013). Email: c.m.wright@warwick.ac.uk

Macaronic satire: making sense of nonsense in the parodies of Dario Fo and Sora Cesira

Since the Middle Ages satirists and parodists have used macaronic language, originally a humorous mix of Latin and the vernacular, to mock or criticize the powerful. Dario Fos celebrated grammelot is one notable example – in monologues including few or no real words, he uses sounds and gestures to incarnate a particular discourse, such as the empty machinery of Berlusconis political language. In the singer-activist-blogger Sora Cesiras parodies of pop songs, macaronic language that combines Italian, the Roman vernacular and English is a vehicle for critiquing Italian politics and the countrys fascination with show business. Using popular songs and music videos as a digital palimpsest, she re-voices and re-presents Berlusconi in a hilarious linguistic mash that is subtitled for full effect, a multimodal performance that fits into and at the same time subverts Italys traditions both of film dubbing and of re-recording foreign hits. Both artists use translation and invented language in a comically mechanical way to create meaningful nonsense that communicates a powerful satirical message about public language, spectacle and power. They also exemplify different ways in which satirists in Italy have eschewed mainstream media, instead using alternative outlets for the circulation of their political satire.