UNIVERSITA’ CATTOLICA DEL SACRO CUORE MILANO Dottorato di ricerca in Scienze linguistiche e letterarie Ciclo XXVIII S.S.D.: L-LIN/12 IMAGES AND VOICES OF GIANNI RODARI IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION Tesi di Dottorato di: Claudia Alborghetti Matricola: 4110846 Anno Accademico: 2014/2015 Dottorato di ricerca in Scienze linguistiche e letterarie Ciclo XXVIII S.S.D.: L-LIN/12 IMAGES AND VOICES OF GIANNI RODARI IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION Coordinatore: Ch.mo Prof. Dante Liano Tesi di Dottorato di: Claudia Alborghetti Matricola: 4110846 Anno Accademico 2014/2015 2 To Paolo 3 4 Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... 8 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 11 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................... 19 LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... 21 PART 1. Receiving Context Analysis and Theoretical Standpoints in the translation of children’s literature .................................................................................................... 23 1. Translated Children’s Literature in the US and the UK from 1959 to 2011 ............. 29 1.1 Children’s Literature after World War II from 1959 to 1980 ........................... 29 1.1.1 Children’s Literature Awards ........................................................... 30 1.1.2 Investing in Culture for a Great Society in the United States of America ............................................................................................ 35 1.1.3 Building a Specialised Market for Children’s Literature in the UK after World War II ............................................................................ 44 1.2 Keeping Translations Afloat between 1980 and 1995 ...................................... 53 1.2.1 Isolating the American Society ......................................................... 58 1.2.2 A Problematic Turn in the UK Market for Children ......................... 64 1.3 Translated books for children in the US and the UK between 1996 and 2011 . 69 1.3.1 The US Resistance to the Foreign, 1996-2011 ................................. 72 1.3.2 A Breath of Fresh Air in Translation for Children in the UK ........... 77 1.4 Discussion of results ......................................................................................... 82 2. Translating for Children in the US and the UK ......................................................... 85 2.1 Domestication vs. Foreignisation ..................................................................... 85 2.2 Translated children’s literature as a peripheral system ..................................... 89 5 2.3 Implications in the mediation of translated books for children ........................ 93 2.4 The voice of the (in)visible translator ............................................................... 99 PART 2: Gianni Rodari in English Translation through Paratextual Materials and Corpus Analysis ....................................................................................................... 107 3. Who is Gianni Rodari? Constructing an image for the British and American public ……………………………………………………………………………………..113 3.1 Rodari’s books published in the UK ............................................................... 113 3.1.1 Telephone Tales/Favole al telefono ................................................ 113 3.1.2 The Befana’s Toyshop/La freccia azzurra ...................................... 118 3.1.3 A Pie in the Sky/La torta in cielo .................................................... 125 3.1.4 Mr. Cat in Business/Gli affari del signor gatto ............................... 128 3.1.5 Tales Told by a Machine/Novelle fatte a macchina ........................ 131 3.1.6 Tales to Change the World ............................................................. 137 3.2 Rodari’s books published in the US ............................................................... 141 3.2.1 Rodari’s Stories in Cricket magazine ............................................. 141 3.2.2 The Grammar of Fantasy ................................................................ 143 3.2.3 One and Seven ................................................................................ 149 3.2.4 Lamberto Lamberto Lamberto ........................................................ 151 3.3 Rodari’s image for the specialised public ....................................................... 157 3.4 Discussion ....................................................................................................... 162 4. Translating Gianni Rodari into English in the UK and the US ............................... 167 4.1 Universals of translation ................................................................................. 167 4.2 Corpus selection criteria and discrete corpus analysis tools ........................... 170 6 4.2.1 Favole al telefono (1962)/Telephone Tales (1965) ......................... 184 4.2.2 La torta in cielo (1966)/A Pie in the Sky (1971) ............................ 218 4.2.3 Tales to Change the World (2008) .................................................. 249 4.2.4 C’era due volte il barone Lamberto (1978)/Lamberto Lamberto Lamberto (2011) ............................................................................. 268 4.3 Discussion of Results ...................................................................................... 295 5. CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................... 305 6. APPENDICES ......................................................................................................... 313 List of Gianni Rodari’s books in English translation ............................................... 313 Interview with Jack Zipes ........................................................................................... 314 A concise biography of Gianni Rodari ....................................................................... 317 7. REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 321 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would have never ventured on a Ph.D. research path had it not been for the enthusiasm of my supervisor, Prof. Margherita Ulrych. Her work in the field of linguistics and translation studies inspired me to look deeper into the subject of translation, whereas my background as English teacher to children provided the topic. Prof. Ulrych’s invaluable suggestions, her guidance throughout the research process as well as the teaching activities in which I had been involved helped me to develop the skills and competence I needed at work and in life. My deepest thanks to the academic and administrative members of the Department of Scienze Linguistiche e Letterature Straniere at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan (Italy) who worked hard to the benefit of all doctoral students in the organisation of seminars, workshops and conferences to broaden our horizons. I express my sincere gratitude to the Head of the Department of Scienze Linguistiche e Letterature Straniere, Prof. Marisa Verna; to the former Dean of the Faculty of Scienze Linguistiche e Letterature Straniere, Prof. Luisa Camaiora and to the current Dean, Prof. Giovanni Gobber; to the former Coordinator of my Doctoral School, Prof. Serena Vitale and the current Coordinator, Prof. Dante Liano. I could not have completed my research without the moral and professional support of my fellow colleagues working in English linguistics with Prof. Ulrych: Prof. Maria Luisa Maggioni, Prof. Costanza Cucchi, Amanda Murphy, Pierfranca Forchini and Silvia Pireddu, as well as all lecturers in the Faculty of Scienze Linguistiche e Letterature Straniere in Via Morozzo della Rocca. I wish to thank Simona Galbusera for her constant monitoring of our institutional duties as doctoral students, together with Elena Angeleri and Marco Boscolo from our Ph.D. office. Last but not least, thank you from the bottom of my heart to my amazing Ph.D. colleagues Caterina Allais, Elisa Romagnoli, Chiara Rubagotti, Chiara Andreoletti, Susanna Broggini and Elena Freda Piredda. For a short period during my research I had the opportunity to study at the National Centre for Children’s Literature (NCRCL) at Roehampton University (London, 8 UK). It is difficult to describe in a few words the invaluable support I received from my supervisor there, Prof. Gillian Lathey. Her contagious passion and deep knowledge of children’s literature in English translation provided part of the groundwork for my own research, and helped me contact other researchers and professional translators with whom I discussed some key issues in translation for children as described in the present thesis. Thanks to her I travelled to the US to meet Prof. Marina Balina, expert in Russian literature, and to interview Prof. Jack Zipes about his experience as translator of Gianni Rodari. Thanks to the Director of NCRCL, Prof. Lisa Sainsbury for giving me the opportunity to present my research on their Ph.D. day at Roehampton, and also to the librarians Julie Mills and Kornelia Kepok, who allowed me to research their rare books archive at the University for as long as I needed (sometimes even skipping lunch!). A deeply felt thank you goes to my friend and colleague Prof. Simona Anselmi. She