Translating Italian-Canadian Migrant Writing to Italian: a Discourse Around the Return to the Motherland/Tongue Tiziana Nannavecchia Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctorate in Philosophy degree in Translation Studies with Specialization in Canadian Studies School of Translation and Interpretation Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Tiziana Nannavecchia, Ottawa, Canada, 2016 ABSTRACT A two-way bond between translation and migration has appeared in the most recent texts in the social sciences and humanities: this connection between the two is exemplified by the mobility metaphor, which considers both practices as journeys across cultural, linguistic and geographical borders. Among the different ways this mobility metaphor can be studied, two particular areas of investigation are of interest for this research: firstly, migrant writing, a literary genre shaped from the increasing migratory movements worldwide; the second area of interest is literary translation, the activity that shapes the way these narratives are disseminated beyond the linguistic borders they were produced in. My investigation into the role of literary translation in the construction and circulation of a migrant discourse starts with the claim that writing and translation in itinerant contexts are driven by, and participate in, the idea of the journey: an interlingual and intercultural flow regulated by social/economic/artistic constraints, a movement in which the migrant experience is ‘translated’ in writing and then ‘migrated’ across languages and spaces. The present analysis focuses on the representative case study of migrant narratives by Canadian writers of Italian descent: their shared reflections on the themes of nostalgia and the mythical search for roots, together with a set of specific linguistic devices – hybridity, juxtaposition of languages, idiolects and registers – create a distinctive literary migrant discourse, that of the return to the land of origin. Guided primarily by the theoretical framework of Cultural Studies, the first part of this work seeks to illustrate how thematic and linguistic elements contribute to the construction of a homecoming discourse in original migrant narratives, and how this relates to the translation practice. Subsequently, the analysis moves to the examination of how these motives are reproduced in the translated texts, and what is/are the key rationale/s behind the translation of this type of works. Ultimately, my research takes a sociologically informed interest in the influence of translation and its agents in endorsing and/or manipulating this rationale in the receiving culture. In fact, this research aims to represent equally the human and cultural-linguistic aspects that affect these translational journeys, concentrating, firstly, on the actors (authors and literary translators) and the social and artistic environments that surround the production of both the source and target texts and, subsequently, on the texts themselves. ii RÉSUMÉ Un lien entre la traduction et la migration a commencé à surgir dans les textes les plus récents dans le domaine des sciences sociales et humaines: ce lien est illustré par la métaphore de la mobilité, qui considère les deux pratiques comme des voyages à travers les frontières culturelles, linguistiques et geographiques. Afin d’étudier cette métaphore, deux domaines d'enquête sont intéressés par cette recherche: l'écriture migrante et la traduction littéraire. Mon enquête sur le rôle de la traduction littéraire dans la construction et la circulation d'un discours migrant repose sur l'affirmation que l'écriture et la traduction dans les contextes itinérants sont façonnées par l'idée du voyage: un flux interlinguistique et interculturel réglementé par des contraintes économiques/artistiques/sociales, un mouvement dans lequel l'expérience des migrants est «traduite» et ensuite «migrée» à travers les langues et les espaces. La présente thèse a pour but l'étude des récits migrants par les écrivains canadiens d'origine italienne: leurs réflexions partagées sur les thèmes de la nostalgie et de la recherche mythique des racines se combinent avec un ensemble de dispositifs linguistiques spécifiques – hybridité, juxtaposition des langues, idiolectes et registres – pour créer un discours littéraire migrant spécifique: le retour à la terre d'origine. Dans le cadre théorique des études culturelles, la première partie de ce travail considère les éléments thématiques et linguistiques qui contribuent à formuler le discours du retour à la terre d'origine dans l’écriture migrante italo-canadienne et son rapport avec la pratique de la traduction. Ensuite, la deuxième partie propose d’analyser des traductions Italiennes des textes Italo-canadiens mettant en évidence la façon dont les éléments mentionnés ci-dessus ont été transposés dans les textes cibles. De plus, ma recherche s’intéresse à l'influence de la traduction et ses agents dans la reproduction/manipulation du discours du retour à la terre d’origine pour la culture cible. En fait, cette recherche vise à représenter à la fois les aspects linguistiques et sociaux de la traduction des textes migrants. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is the result of a 5-year-long journey away from Home and to a new Home. Like the journeys described in this work, mine would not have been possible without the precious help and support from several people, both here (in Canada) and there (Italy), and in-between. First, I would like to thank Prof. Luise von Flotow for her neverending support, patience, optimism, and hospitality throughout this long process. You managed to keep me on the right track, despite my verbosity, my convoluted sentences, and my tendency to wander. Having a good guide is the best a PhD candidate can hope for! To my family: grazie. Grazie for never questioning my decisions, especially in April 2011, when I told you I would be leaving for Canada only 5 months later. I know that, despite my unpredictability, you are very proud of me. I am also extremely grateful that you kept on asking on a weekly basis if I was close to being done: that gave me the extra push I needed. Phil, thank you for accompanying me on this journey, quite literally. Thank you for leaving stability behind and for being brave enough to start everything anew here in Canada, with me. It really looks like I won the PhD race, now it is time for you to finish your thesis, too. Thank you, grazie, merci, gracias, etc., to all my friends in the many places I have called home. Thank you for putting up with me, and for taking my mind off work, despite the distance. It was needed. I owe a lot to coffee, travelling, and running: three of the few things that kept me sane and healthy despite these hectic years. Finally, thank you to all who have read and will read this work. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii RÉSUMÉ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES x INTRODUCTION 1 1. Context and Background to the Research 1 2. Research Questions, Structure and Methodology 5 CHAPTER 1: From Migration to Translation: State of the Art of Research on Two Practices ‘on the Move’ 9 1. Introduction: Background to the Research 9 2. ‘Migrating Theories’: a Literature Review of the Study of Migration across Disciplines 10 2.1. From Which Perspectives Has Migration Been Researched? 11 2.2. Bourdieusian Theories of Migration 15 2.3. Other Routes to the Study of Migration 19 3. The Migrant I (Eye): a Review of the Literature on Migrant Subjectivity and Culture 21 3.1. Studying Migrant Culture: from Destructing Binarism to Unrepresentability 22 3.2. Studying Migrant Culture: Location and Cartographies 24 4. Departures, Arrivals, and Translational Journeys: a Review of the Literature on Migrant Writing 28 4.1. Studying Mobility Through Literature: International Perspectives 29 4.2. A Question of Terminology: Migrant Literature as the Most Comprehensive Label 32 v 4.3. Migrant Writing as a Translational Performance: the Rise of the Mobility Metaphor 38 5. Where the Studies on Migration and Translation Intersect: an Overview of Commonalities 44 5.1. Translation Studies: a Review of the Most Recent Developments 45 5.1.1. The Birth and Development of a Sociology of Translation 53 6. Conclusions 61 CHAPTER 2: Italian Migrant Writing: a Tile within the Canadian Literary Mosaic 63 1. Introduction 63 2. A Literary History of Italian Writing in Canada 63 2.1. The First Phase: Italians in the Wilderness 65 2.2. The Second Phase: Italian-Canadians at the Turn of the Century and in-between Wars 67 2.3. Gli italiani in Canada: the Post-War Generation 70 2.4. Roman Candles, a Second Generation of Migrant Writers, and the Desire to Revisit Italy 75 2.5. 1990s: The Maturity of a Group 85 2.6. Third Generation ‘Migrants’ 88 2.7. Conclusions: Generational Continuities and Discontinuities 89 3. The Return 94 3.1. Homecomings in Italian-Canadian Literature 95 3.2. Conclusions 112 CHAPTER 3: A Translational Journey Home: a Study of Italian Translations of Anglophone and Francophone Italian-Canadian Works 115 1. Introduction 115 2. Translation Discourse in Italian-Canadians Narratives: Writing as Translating Italianness 117 2.1. Writing as Translating: a Migrant Discourse around Mother Tongue(s) 118 2.2. Conclusions 128 3. Translated ‘Back’: the Italian-Canadian Migrant Discourse Returns to the Land of Origin 129 vi 3.1. Italian-Canadian Literature in Italy: a Journey Back via Translation 131 3.1.1. Italian-Canadian Literature Translated in Italy: a Schematization 135 3.1.2. The Flow of Translations: Remarks 137 3.1.3. The Subvention Network 142 4. The Intermediaries of the Journey Home: the Actors in the Italian Translational Field 144 4.1. The Italian-Canadian Network: a Focus on Translators 145 4.2. The Italian-Canadian Network: a Focus on Publishers 149 4.2.1.