Translating Caterina Edwards' 'The Lion's Mouth' into Italian : an example of cultural translation in practice
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
Seccia, Maria Cristina
Translation Studies
Translating Caterina Edwards' 'The Lion's Mouth' into Italian : an example of cultural translation in practice. 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
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