Translating Timberlake Wertenbaker's the Love of the Nightingale
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An Experiment in Multilingualism: Translating Timberlake Wertenbaker’s The Love of the Nightingale and Dianeira into Italian Natalia Teresa De Martino PhD in Literary Translation University of East Anglia School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing May 2018 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived therefrom must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. Abstract This study analyses the potentialities of multilingualism as a translation strategy. It does so with the explicitly political aim of resisting and changing the way of thinking about, and doing, translation in Italy, where, for cultural and historical reasons also examined, engagement with the discipline is of a primarily practical and prescriptive nature. The multilingual translation strategy presented is also seen as a way of promoting a kind of literature which is more representative of the multilingual nature of contemporary society, as well as a critical tool for the understanding of the source texts. The relevance of this kind of strategy in the context of increasing multilingual pedagogical practices, such as CLIL, in Italian schools, is also considered. The approach is practical, providing a multilingual translation of two full texts, Timberlake Wertenbaker’s The Love of the Nightingale (1988) and Dianeira (1999) – translated as Aedón and La moglie dell’eroe (The hero’s wife) respectively – and in- depth commentary of extracts drawn from these translations. I examine reasons why multilingualism is a useful strategy in general and for the translation into Italian of these texts specifically, and I consider the consequences that the adoption of such a strategy might have on the source text and on the target culture, on translation studies in Italy and on the relationship between the reader and the translator. Contents 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..5 1.1. Points of contact…………………………………………………………………………………………………………5 1.2. Multilingualism in literature and translation……………………………………………………………….9 1.3. Multilingualism as a translation strategy……………………………………………………………………11 1.3.1. The target language context................................................................................11 1.3.2. The translator’s subjectivity.................................................................................14 1.3.3. The source texts...................................................................................................15 1.4. Transforming readers and translators............................................................................16 1.5. Chapter outline...............................................................................................................18 2. Specificities of the Italian Literary Translation Context…………………………………………………..22 2.1. Introduction....................................................................................................................22 2.2. A non-job: the question of obscurity………………………………………………………………………….26 2.3. Theory and practice: the question of training…………………………………………………………….30 2.3.1. Academic training and conservativism.................................................................31 2.3.2. Private training and prescriptiveness...................................................................34 2.4. Pride and prejudice: the question of insularity…………………………………………………………..40 2.5. Culture and politics: historical embargo and censorship………………………………………..…..44 2.6. Textual visibility: the question of responsibility………………………………………………………....47 2.7. Way forward...................................................................................................................52 3. Embracing Hybridity.............................................................................................................56 3.1. Introduction....................................................................................................................56 3.2. Literary Criticism.............................................................................................................63 3.3. Philosophy......................................................................................................................66 3.4. Pedagogy........................................................................................................................68 3.5. Psychology......................................................................................................................71 3.6. Politics............................................................................................................................76 3.7. Hybridity in practice.......................................................................................................84 4. Making Translation Visible: Two Plays by Timberlake Wertenbaker………………………………86 4.1. Introduction....................................................................................................................86 4.1.1. The playwright......................................................................................................90 4.1.2. The Love of the Nightingale..................................................................................91 4.1.3. Dianeira................................................................................................................92 4.1.4. Page or Stage........................................................................................................92 4.2. Defining The Love of the Nightingale and Dianeira…………………………………………………….95 4.3. Wertenbaker as visible translator................................................................................101 4.4. Translation, politics and polyphony.............................................................................108 4.5. Wertenbaker beyond translation.................................................................................112 4.6. Translating Timberlake Wertenbaker...........................................................................116 5. Translations of The Love of the Nightingale and Dianeira…………………………………………….118 5.1. Aedón...........................................................................................................................119 5.2. La moglie dell’eroe.......................................................................................................180 3 6. Multilingual translation: visibility, polyphony and provocation……………………………………223 6.1. Introduction..................................................................................................................223 6.2. Linguistic bigamy..........................................................................................................229 6.2.1. Personal background..........................................................................................229 6.2.2. National context.................................................................................................232 6.3. Visible translation and reader language proficiency…………………………………………..…….235 6.4. Polyphony and subversion: using multilingualism to multiply perspectives……………..240 6.4.1. Multiplying perspectives in Dianeira...................................................................241 6.4.2. Multiplying perspective in The Love of the Nightingale……………………………………248 6.5. Cognitive benefits.........................................................................................................256 6.6. Provocation and practical benefits...............................................................................259 7. Conclusion….......................................................................................................................267 Bibliography..............................................................................................................................280 Appendixes...............................................................................................................................302 4 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Points of contact Timberlake Wertenbaker is a contemporary Anglo-American playwright whose oeuvre includes the 1988 award-winning play Our Country’s Good as well as the two works this study is primarily concerned with, the 1988 play The Love of the Nightingale, here translated as Aedón, and the 1999 radio drama Dianeira, here translated as La moglie dell’eroe (The hero’s wife). Throughout the thesis, I shall refer to my translations of Wertenbaker’s work with the Italian titles I have given them – with the exception of Chapter 6 where, due to the high frequency of references, I will introduce abbreviations. Details about Wertenbaker’s life are present in the playwright’s introductions to her works and have also been provided in talks and interviews, some of which I was fortunate to take part in thanks to Wertenbaker’s presence at UEA since 2012.1 Bush’s 2013 monography on Wertenbaker offers a more in-depth biographical account than most other sources. Born in New York, Wertenbaker spent her early childhood in the French Basque country. In addition to French and English, the young Wertenbaker therefore also spoke Basque (Bush 2013: 7). Her father died when she was a teenager and after that loss her family moved back to the USA, where she attended St. John’s College in Annapolis, a school with a