Bangor University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Translating Caterina Edwards' The lion's mouth into Italian : an example of cultural translation in practice Seccia, Maria Cristina Award date: 2014 Awarding institution: Bangor University Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? 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Oct. 2021 Translating Caterina Edwards' The Lion's Mouth into Italian: An Example of Cultural Translation in Practice Maria Cristina Seccia Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD by practice in Translation Studies Bangor University, School of Modem Languages December 2014 IMAGING SERVICES NORTH Boston Spa, Wetherby West Yorkshire, lS23 7BQ www.bl,uk VOLUME 2 HAS BEEN RESTRICTED UNDER INSTRUCTION FROM THE UNIVERSITY CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................ 4 DECLARATION AND CONSENT ................................................................ 6 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 11 1 Cultural Translation and Hybridity: Debates and Applications ............................ 21 1.1 A Critical History of Cultural Translation .................................................................... 22 1.2 A Critical History of Cultural Hybridity....................................................................... 31 1.3 Linguistic Traces of Cultural Translation and Hybridity: Heterolingual Texts .............................................................................................................................. 39 1.4 Cultural Translation through Translation: An Applied Approach ................................ 40 1.5 Approaching Italian-Canadian Literature as a Fonn of Cultural Translation ..................................................................................................................... 45 2 Italian-Canadian Literature: Critical Debates, Packaging and Reception in Canada ..................................................................................................................... 51 2.1 Defining Italian-Canadian Literature ............................................................................ 51 2.2 Distributing and Packaging Italian-Canadian Literature ............................................... 63 2.3 Critical and Academic Reception in Canada................................................................. 69 3 Italian-Canadian Literature in Italy: Distribution, Reception and Translation ................................................................................................................... 79 3.1 Distribution and Academic Reception in Italy.............................................................. 79 3.2 Italian-Canadian Literature Translated into Italian ....................................................... 82 3.3 Nino Ricci's 'Passage to Canada' ................................................................................. 88 3.4 Antonio D' Alfonso's Fabrizio's Passion .......................................................... 95 1 4 The Lion 's Mouth: A Form of Cultural Translation ..•••••..••...•••.•••••••••••••••••.•••••••••• 119 4.1 Movable Spaces ........................................................................................................... 121 4.2 Movable Belongings .................................................................................................... 129 4.3 'Points of Exit' and 'Points of Entrance' .................................................................... 134 4.4 The Impossible 'Return Journey' ................................................................................ 142 4.5 The Impossible Arrival Home ..................................................................................... 145 4.6 Translated Language ................................................................................................... 147 5 La Bocca di leone: A Model of Cultural Translation in Practice •••.•••••••••••••• 160 5.1 Translating a Translated Language ............................................................................. 163 5.2 Translating Belongings ................................................................................ 170 5.3 Translating Displacement. .......................................................................... 182 5.4 Translating Otherness ...... , ......................... , .............................................. 184 5.5 Translating 'Points of Exit' and 'Points of Entrance' ..................................... 190 5.6 Translating an 'In-complete Home' ......................................................... 206 Conclusions and Suggestions for Further Research .....•.••••••.•••.•••..••.•••.....••..•••.••.••••..• 212 Bibliography ....................................................................................... 216 Word count: 99.380 2 ABSTRACT The present thesis investigates the link between migrant writing and translation studies from a practice-led position on the basis of my own Italian translation of Caterina Edwards' novel The Lion's Mouth (1982). This literary text, taken as an exemplary model of Anglophone Italian-Canadian literature, is analysed through the lens ofHomi Bhabha's theory of cultural translation (1994). The novel is centred on the migrant experience ofthe narrator, who translates her Italian past to a Canadian audience and engages in acts of negotiation between her Italian and Canadian cultural identities in order to integrate into her host country. The narration ofthe intercultural encounters between the Italian migrant narrator and the Canadian host society enacts mechanisms of cultural production, construction of 'self and 'other', as well as of self-representation in source-text readers. Translating such hybrid literary texts involves shifts in perspective and expectations as well as new mechanisms of representation. Translation practices become even more complex when migrant literary texts 'travel back' to the narrators'/authors' home country. Through an analysis of the existing Italian translations of Antonio D'Alfonso's Fabrizio's Passion (1995) and Nino Ricci's short literary memoirs 'Passage to Canada' (2003), this study also looks at how the translation strategies used, like linguistic homogenisation, are often at variance with the narrators' process of cultural translation and their transcultural identity. The result is a monocultural target text, which remains at odds with the theoretical debates in translation studies and the literary criticism of Italian-Canadian writing in the Italian context. This study shows, by contrast, that cultural translation can shed light on the interlingual translation of literary texts, where reflections on cultural identity, (non)belonging, memory, language and (self-)translation playa crucial role. More specifically, my Italian translation of The Lion's Mouth shows how postcolonial translation theories have informed my textual practices and translation strategies in an attempt to reproduce a heterolingual target text, which conveys the narrator's cultural difference. Translation by practice shows how the recreation of a hybrid literary text, which enlivens the narrator's process of cultural translation, also involves readers in a similar act of translation. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The completion of this thesis has been made possible thanks to a number of people. I would like to express my gratitude to: My supervisors Dr Laura Rorato and Dr Helena Miguelez-Carballeira for their insightful guidance and precious advice. Their talent and experience have been a great source of inspiration for me. The School of Modern Languages at Bangor University for funding my research and giving me the opportunity to teach the Italian language during these years, thus allowing me to achieve one of my greatest ambitions. Special thanks go to the Head of the Italian section, Dr Laura Rorato, for her constant trust in my teaching abilities and for being an exemplary mentor. Dr Deborah Saidero from the University of Udine, my first professor of English and Translation Studies and Master's thesis supervisor, who first got me interested in Canadian literature and in particular in Caterina Edwards' works. Writer, critic and former AICW president Dr Licia Canton, who has involved me in several projects, like organising the AICWbiennial conferences and editing the anthologies. This has helped me come in touch with Italian-Canadian writers and has been a great source of stimulation for my research. Caterina Edwards, who has shared with me useful material and her experience as a writer. Her insightful