Literary Translation and Publishing
A.Y. 2025/2026
Learning objectives
The course objectives are divided into two main areas:
- To provide an initial overview of the field of translation studies in its main areas (theory, history, sociology) in order to introduce students to research and translation practice in the literary and, more broadly, cultural sphere. In this sense, the course is designed as a preparatory step for more in-depth study in language translation courses.
- To provide students with the knowledge necessary for both a conscious practice of literary translation in the publishing field and a critical reflection on this practice, with particular attention to the functions related to translation carried out, in the publishing context, by those who possess literary and cultural skills in one or more foreign languages.
- To provide an initial overview of the field of translation studies in its main areas (theory, history, sociology) in order to introduce students to research and translation practice in the literary and, more broadly, cultural sphere. In this sense, the course is designed as a preparatory step for more in-depth study in language translation courses.
- To provide students with the knowledge necessary for both a conscious practice of literary translation in the publishing field and a critical reflection on this practice, with particular attention to the functions related to translation carried out, in the publishing context, by those who possess literary and cultural skills in one or more foreign languages.
Expected learning outcomes
Expected learning outcomes:
- Know the differences between the main lines of development of literary translation studies in different national and cultural contexts
- Distinguish the articulations of the field of study both within different linguistic and cultural contexts and in the transnational context
- Critically reflect on the function of thinking about translation within literary studies, from a national and comparative perspective.
- Be familiar with the material conditions for the circulation of texts intended for translation within the modern publishing industry and market.
- Reconstruct the publishing history of particular works, with specific reference to the Italian context.
- Know the differences between the main lines of development of literary translation studies in different national and cultural contexts
- Distinguish the articulations of the field of study both within different linguistic and cultural contexts and in the transnational context
- Critically reflect on the function of thinking about translation within literary studies, from a national and comparative perspective.
- Be familiar with the material conditions for the circulation of texts intended for translation within the modern publishing industry and market.
- Reconstruct the publishing history of particular works, with specific reference to the Italian context.
Lesson period: First semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course can be attended as a single course.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
The course offers a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 9 credits.
For students enrolled in the "Translation and Editorial Consulting" curriculum (both bilingual and monolingual), taking the exam for 9 credits is mandatory.
Students from other curricula may take the exam for 6 credits. In that case, it is mandatory to take the exam on Parts I and II.
Part I: Introduction to Translation Studies
Translation has long been a subject of reflection and has often served as a kind of contrast medium, illuminating crucial issues not only in the linguistic field but also in literary, religious, political, and philosophical domains. However, it was in the 1970s that translation studies emerged as an academic discipline, developing along various branches (linguistic, sociological, historical, to name just a few).
The first part of the course aims to provide an overview of the evolution of thought and scholarship on translation—particularly literary translation—from a comparative and transnational perspective. It will show how discourse on literary translation has evolved in different national and linguistic contexts, and how the very nature of translation studies has fostered dialogue among these diverse approaches.
For the exam, each student will not only develop a basic understanding of the field but will also explore a key text (or group of texts) related to a specific theoretical approach.
Part II: Literary Translation in the Publishing Context
The mediation of publishing plays a crucial role in the conception, production, and dissemination of translated literature. Equally important for the success of the translation endeavour is an awareness of the various functions of translation—broadly understood here as a social activity—within the editorial mediation process. This includes not only the act of translation itself but also related activities such as reading works submitted for translation, scouting, editing, and different kinds of exchanges (rights trading, book fairs, etc.).
The second part of the course focuses on the various forms in which translation—specifically literary translation—takes place within the publishing world, with particular reference to the Italian publishing context of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Part III: Retranslating the Classics
Endless translation, plural translation: these are just some of the definitions used for the retranslation of classics. Why do we return to translating a work? What criteria guide these choices? And how is such an operation carried out in the publishing world?
This part of the course seeks to answer these questions by considering their literary, editorial, and translational implications. Special attention will be given to the positioning of new translations, their dialogue with existing ones, paratextual and extratextual elements, and the translation approaches adopted by different translators.
The course will conclude with a case study: the Italian translations of Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, examining the publishing history of each translation based on archival documents and critical reception.
For students enrolled in the "Translation and Editorial Consulting" curriculum (both bilingual and monolingual), taking the exam for 9 credits is mandatory.
Students from other curricula may take the exam for 6 credits. In that case, it is mandatory to take the exam on Parts I and II.
Part I: Introduction to Translation Studies
Translation has long been a subject of reflection and has often served as a kind of contrast medium, illuminating crucial issues not only in the linguistic field but also in literary, religious, political, and philosophical domains. However, it was in the 1970s that translation studies emerged as an academic discipline, developing along various branches (linguistic, sociological, historical, to name just a few).
The first part of the course aims to provide an overview of the evolution of thought and scholarship on translation—particularly literary translation—from a comparative and transnational perspective. It will show how discourse on literary translation has evolved in different national and linguistic contexts, and how the very nature of translation studies has fostered dialogue among these diverse approaches.
For the exam, each student will not only develop a basic understanding of the field but will also explore a key text (or group of texts) related to a specific theoretical approach.
Part II: Literary Translation in the Publishing Context
The mediation of publishing plays a crucial role in the conception, production, and dissemination of translated literature. Equally important for the success of the translation endeavour is an awareness of the various functions of translation—broadly understood here as a social activity—within the editorial mediation process. This includes not only the act of translation itself but also related activities such as reading works submitted for translation, scouting, editing, and different kinds of exchanges (rights trading, book fairs, etc.).
The second part of the course focuses on the various forms in which translation—specifically literary translation—takes place within the publishing world, with particular reference to the Italian publishing context of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Part III: Retranslating the Classics
Endless translation, plural translation: these are just some of the definitions used for the retranslation of classics. Why do we return to translating a work? What criteria guide these choices? And how is such an operation carried out in the publishing world?
This part of the course seeks to answer these questions by considering their literary, editorial, and translational implications. Special attention will be given to the positioning of new translations, their dialogue with existing ones, paratextual and extratextual elements, and the translation approaches adopted by different translators.
The course will conclude with a case study: the Italian translations of Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, examining the publishing history of each translation based on archival documents and critical reception.
Prerequisites for admission
A good passive knowledge of English is required, as some of the primary and critical texts in the bibliography are in English.
Teaching methods
- Lectures
- Meetings with industry professionals
- Meetings with industry professionals
Teaching Resources
Parte I: Introduzione allo studio della traduzione
Jeremy Munday, Sara Ramos Pinto and Jakob Blakesley, Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications, Routledge 2022, capp. 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10
Questo testo è OBBLIGATORIO per gli studenti NON FREQUENTANTI, e costituisce un valido supporto per lo studio per gli studenti frequentanti, per i quali è facoltativo e bastano gli appunti delle lezioni.
Ogni studentessa/studente sceglierà di approfondire UNO dei seguenti percorsi
- Il pensiero sulla traduzione prima del Ventesimo secolo
- Capitolo 2 di Introducing Translation Studies
- Lutero, Lettera del tradurre, a cura di Emilio Bonfatti, Marsilio (solo il testo di Lutero, va bene anche un'altra edizione)
- John Dryden, Preface to Ovid, disponibile al sito https://ttt.hypotheses.org/files/2017/09/Préface-Ovide-Tyler-bilingue.pdf
- Friedrich Schleiermacher, Sui diversi metodi del tradurre, in La teoria della traduzione nella storia, a cura di Siri Neergard, Bompiani
- Matthew Arnold, On Translating Homer, disponibile al sito https://ttt.hypotheses.org/9
- Filosofia della traduzione
- Capitolo 10 di Introducing Translation Studies
- Walter Benjamin, Il compito del traduttore. Ed. consigliata a cura di Maria Teresa Costa, Mimesis (solo il testo di Benjamin, va bene anche un'altra edizione)
- George Steiner, Dopo Babele, Garzanti, Capitolo 1, "La traduzione come comprensione"
- La teoria dei polisistemi
- Capitolo 7 di Introducing Translation Studies
- Itamar Even-Zohar, Polysystem Studies, special issue of Poetics Today, vol. 11, n. 1, 1990, pp. 9-51 e 73-78, disponibile al sito https://www.jstor.org/stable/i303085
- Traduzione e studi di genere
- Capitolo 8 di Introducing Translation Studies
- Olga Castro and Emek Ergun, eds., Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives (1st ed.). Routledge, 2017, "Introduction", Chapter 2 "Translation and the Circuits of Globalisation", Chapter 6 "Gender Travelling across France, Germany and the US"
- Traduzione e studi postcoloniali
- Capitolo 8 di Introducing Translation Studies
- Susan Bassnett and Harish Trivedi, Postcolonial Translation: Theory and Practice, Routledge 1999, "Introduction: Of Colonies, Cannibals and Vernaculars" and Chapter 1 "Postcolonial Writing and Translation".
- Traduzione, letterature comparate, World Literature
- Michele Sisto, "World literature(s). Traduzioni e storia letteraria nazionale." Status Quaestionis, (26). https://doi.org/10.13133/2239-1983/18782
- Pascale Casanova, La repubblica mondiale delle lettere, Nottetempo, cap. 3
- Sociologia della traduzione e translator studies
- Capitolo 9 di Introducing Translation Studies
- Pierre Bourdieu, "Le condizioni sociali della circolazione internazionale delle idee", in Studi culturali, Rivista quadrimestrale, 1/2016, pp. 61-82
- Klaus Kaindl, "(Literary) Translator Studies: Shaping the Field", in Klaus Kaindl, , Waltraud Kolb, and Daniela Schlager, eds., Literary Translator Studies, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2021, pp. 5-36.
Parte II: La traduzione letteraria nel contesto editoriale
- Bruno Pischedda, "Il quarantennio delle (nuove) traduzioni", in Id., La competizione editoriale. Marchi e collane di vasto pubblico nell'Italia contemporanea, Carocci, pp. 189-236.
- Norbert Bachtleitner, "A Proposal to Include Book History in Translation Studies. Illustrated with German Translations of Scott and Flaubert" arcadia 44, no. 2 (2009): 420-440. https://doi.org/10.1515/ARCA.2009.024
- Sullam, Sara. 2024. "Costruire un catalogo di letteratura straniera: leggere, valutare, tradurre", in Altre Modernità, numero speciale Milano e i Sud del Mondo, https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/AMonline/article/view/22351
- Brian Mossop, "Revision", in Yves Gambier & Luc van Doorslaer (eds), Handbook of Translation Studies Vol. 2, John Benjamins 2011, pp. 135-139. Updated online version 2016 at John Benjamins Handbook website, along with French and Ukrainian translations. https://benjamins.com/online/hts/articles/rev1
- Gisèle Sapiro. "Editorial policy and translation" In Handbook of Translation Studies: Volume 3edited by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, 32-38. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1075/hts.3.edi1
- Lawrence Venuti, "Translations on the Book Market", in Id. Translation Changes Everything, Routledge, 158-165.
- Cécile Cottenet, "Introduction", in Ead., Literary Agents in the Transatlantic Book Trade
- American Fiction, French Rights, and the Hoffman Agency, Routledge 2019, 1-18.
- Alessandra Preda e Nicoletta Vallorani, a cura di, La fabbrica dei classici. La traduzione delle letterature straniere e l'editoria milanese (1950-2021), Ledizioni 2023, "Introduzione" e un saggio a scelta dalle sezioni I o II.
Testo di riferimento AGGIUNTIVO per studenti NON FREQUENTANTI:
Gian Carlo Ferretti, Storia dell'editoria letteraria in Italia: 1945-2003, Einaudi.
Il testo è utilissimo come riferimento anche per gli studenti frequentanti.
Parte III: Ritradurre i classici
- Antonio Bibbò e Francesca Lorandini (a cura di), Una conversazione infinita. Perché ritradurre i classici, Mucchi, pp. 7-34 e UN saggio a scelta.
- Sharon Deane-Cox, Retranslation: Translation, Literature and Reinterpretation, Bloomsbury, pp. 1-34.
- Busi, Aldo. 1995. Seminario di presentazione della collana "I classici classici" all'Università La Sapienza di Roma il 10 maggio 1995, presieduto da Agostino Lombardo. Trascrizione della registrazione conservata nell'archivio di Radio Radicale, in Martina Tocco, La letteratura tedesca nella collana "I classici classici" di Aldo Busi, tesi di laurea magistrale, Università di Chieti-Pescara, Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne, a.a. 2019-2020: 108-130 (testo fornito dalla docente su piattaforma Ariel)
- Sara Sullam, "Traduzione", in Virna Brigatti, Anna Lisa Cavazzuti, Elisa Marazzi e Sara Sullam, Archivi editoriali. Tra storia del testo e storia del libro, Unicopli, pp. 133-136.
- Elisa Bolchi, "Solid and Living: The Italian Woolf Renaissance", in Jeanne Dubino, and others (eds), The Edinburgh Companion to Virginia Woolf and Contemporary Global Literature, EUP, https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474448475.003.0011
- Sulla piattaforma Ariel verranno forniti dalla docente materiali aggiuntivi per lo studio del caso.
Testo aggiuntivo per non frequentanti:
Elisa Bolchi, L'indimenticabile artista, Vita e Pensiero.
Jeremy Munday, Sara Ramos Pinto and Jakob Blakesley, Introducing Translation Studies: Theories and Applications, Routledge 2022, capp. 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10
Questo testo è OBBLIGATORIO per gli studenti NON FREQUENTANTI, e costituisce un valido supporto per lo studio per gli studenti frequentanti, per i quali è facoltativo e bastano gli appunti delle lezioni.
Ogni studentessa/studente sceglierà di approfondire UNO dei seguenti percorsi
- Il pensiero sulla traduzione prima del Ventesimo secolo
- Capitolo 2 di Introducing Translation Studies
- Lutero, Lettera del tradurre, a cura di Emilio Bonfatti, Marsilio (solo il testo di Lutero, va bene anche un'altra edizione)
- John Dryden, Preface to Ovid, disponibile al sito https://ttt.hypotheses.org/files/2017/09/Préface-Ovide-Tyler-bilingue.pdf
- Friedrich Schleiermacher, Sui diversi metodi del tradurre, in La teoria della traduzione nella storia, a cura di Siri Neergard, Bompiani
- Matthew Arnold, On Translating Homer, disponibile al sito https://ttt.hypotheses.org/9
- Filosofia della traduzione
- Capitolo 10 di Introducing Translation Studies
- Walter Benjamin, Il compito del traduttore. Ed. consigliata a cura di Maria Teresa Costa, Mimesis (solo il testo di Benjamin, va bene anche un'altra edizione)
- George Steiner, Dopo Babele, Garzanti, Capitolo 1, "La traduzione come comprensione"
- La teoria dei polisistemi
- Capitolo 7 di Introducing Translation Studies
- Itamar Even-Zohar, Polysystem Studies, special issue of Poetics Today, vol. 11, n. 1, 1990, pp. 9-51 e 73-78, disponibile al sito https://www.jstor.org/stable/i303085
- Traduzione e studi di genere
- Capitolo 8 di Introducing Translation Studies
- Olga Castro and Emek Ergun, eds., Feminist Translation Studies: Local and Transnational Perspectives (1st ed.). Routledge, 2017, "Introduction", Chapter 2 "Translation and the Circuits of Globalisation", Chapter 6 "Gender Travelling across France, Germany and the US"
- Traduzione e studi postcoloniali
- Capitolo 8 di Introducing Translation Studies
- Susan Bassnett and Harish Trivedi, Postcolonial Translation: Theory and Practice, Routledge 1999, "Introduction: Of Colonies, Cannibals and Vernaculars" and Chapter 1 "Postcolonial Writing and Translation".
- Traduzione, letterature comparate, World Literature
- Michele Sisto, "World literature(s). Traduzioni e storia letteraria nazionale." Status Quaestionis, (26). https://doi.org/10.13133/2239-1983/18782
- Pascale Casanova, La repubblica mondiale delle lettere, Nottetempo, cap. 3
- Sociologia della traduzione e translator studies
- Capitolo 9 di Introducing Translation Studies
- Pierre Bourdieu, "Le condizioni sociali della circolazione internazionale delle idee", in Studi culturali, Rivista quadrimestrale, 1/2016, pp. 61-82
- Klaus Kaindl, "(Literary) Translator Studies: Shaping the Field", in Klaus Kaindl, , Waltraud Kolb, and Daniela Schlager, eds., Literary Translator Studies, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2021, pp. 5-36.
Parte II: La traduzione letteraria nel contesto editoriale
- Bruno Pischedda, "Il quarantennio delle (nuove) traduzioni", in Id., La competizione editoriale. Marchi e collane di vasto pubblico nell'Italia contemporanea, Carocci, pp. 189-236.
- Norbert Bachtleitner, "A Proposal to Include Book History in Translation Studies. Illustrated with German Translations of Scott and Flaubert" arcadia 44, no. 2 (2009): 420-440. https://doi.org/10.1515/ARCA.2009.024
- Sullam, Sara. 2024. "Costruire un catalogo di letteratura straniera: leggere, valutare, tradurre", in Altre Modernità, numero speciale Milano e i Sud del Mondo, https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/AMonline/article/view/22351
- Brian Mossop, "Revision", in Yves Gambier & Luc van Doorslaer (eds), Handbook of Translation Studies Vol. 2, John Benjamins 2011, pp. 135-139. Updated online version 2016 at John Benjamins Handbook website, along with French and Ukrainian translations. https://benjamins.com/online/hts/articles/rev1
- Gisèle Sapiro. "Editorial policy and translation" In Handbook of Translation Studies: Volume 3edited by Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer, 32-38. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1075/hts.3.edi1
- Lawrence Venuti, "Translations on the Book Market", in Id. Translation Changes Everything, Routledge, 158-165.
- Cécile Cottenet, "Introduction", in Ead., Literary Agents in the Transatlantic Book Trade
- American Fiction, French Rights, and the Hoffman Agency, Routledge 2019, 1-18.
- Alessandra Preda e Nicoletta Vallorani, a cura di, La fabbrica dei classici. La traduzione delle letterature straniere e l'editoria milanese (1950-2021), Ledizioni 2023, "Introduzione" e un saggio a scelta dalle sezioni I o II.
Testo di riferimento AGGIUNTIVO per studenti NON FREQUENTANTI:
Gian Carlo Ferretti, Storia dell'editoria letteraria in Italia: 1945-2003, Einaudi.
Il testo è utilissimo come riferimento anche per gli studenti frequentanti.
Parte III: Ritradurre i classici
- Antonio Bibbò e Francesca Lorandini (a cura di), Una conversazione infinita. Perché ritradurre i classici, Mucchi, pp. 7-34 e UN saggio a scelta.
- Sharon Deane-Cox, Retranslation: Translation, Literature and Reinterpretation, Bloomsbury, pp. 1-34.
- Busi, Aldo. 1995. Seminario di presentazione della collana "I classici classici" all'Università La Sapienza di Roma il 10 maggio 1995, presieduto da Agostino Lombardo. Trascrizione della registrazione conservata nell'archivio di Radio Radicale, in Martina Tocco, La letteratura tedesca nella collana "I classici classici" di Aldo Busi, tesi di laurea magistrale, Università di Chieti-Pescara, Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Culture Moderne, a.a. 2019-2020: 108-130 (testo fornito dalla docente su piattaforma Ariel)
- Sara Sullam, "Traduzione", in Virna Brigatti, Anna Lisa Cavazzuti, Elisa Marazzi e Sara Sullam, Archivi editoriali. Tra storia del testo e storia del libro, Unicopli, pp. 133-136.
- Elisa Bolchi, "Solid and Living: The Italian Woolf Renaissance", in Jeanne Dubino, and others (eds), The Edinburgh Companion to Virginia Woolf and Contemporary Global Literature, EUP, https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474448475.003.0011
- Sulla piattaforma Ariel verranno forniti dalla docente materiali aggiuntivi per lo studio del caso.
Testo aggiuntivo per non frequentanti:
Elisa Bolchi, L'indimenticabile artista, Vita e Pensiero.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The final exam consists of an oral assessment aimed at verifying the student's knowledge of the main trends in translation studies and their ability to apply the acquired knowledge in the publishing field.
The final grade is expressed on a scale of thirty (pass mark: 18) Students have the right to decline the grade; in such cases, the result will be recorded as "Ritirato."
Exam arrangements for students with disabilities and/or specific learning disorders (SLD) must be agreed upon with the instructor, in accordance with Unimi Services for students with Specific Learning Disabilities
This syllabus is valid until February 2027.
The final grade is expressed on a scale of thirty (pass mark: 18) Students have the right to decline the grade; in such cases, the result will be recorded as "Ritirato."
Exam arrangements for students with disabilities and/or specific learning disorders (SLD) must be agreed upon with the instructor, in accordance with Unimi Services for students with Specific Learning Disabilities
This syllabus is valid until February 2027.
Modules or teaching units
Part A and B
L-FIL-LET/14 - LITERARY CRITICISM AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE - University credits: 6
Lessons: 40 hours
Part C
L-FIL-LET/14 - LITERARY CRITICISM AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Educational website(s)
Professor(s)