Literary Translation and Publishing

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: Translating literary non-fiction and essays
At a time when the boundaries of fiction are being profoundly redefined, the genre of literary non-fiction has expanded rapidly, and works such as those by Joan Didion, to cite just one example, which combine autobiographical writing or reporting with a recognisable authorial style, have enjoyed great commercial success. Alongside such works, the non-fiction sector naturally responds to the challenges of a contemporary world characterised by an ever-increasing - and at times overwhelming - availability of information, the need to vet such information, and the requirement for an informed and critical approach to sources. Such issues take on particular significance, both theoretically and practically, when approaching the translation of non-fiction or literary non-fiction texts, for which specific preliminary research and preparation are required. The module therefore aims to reflect on the challenges faced by those translating such texts, to demonstrate how the translation of non-fiction can be studied from a cultural-historical perspective, and to provide an initial working methodology for such texts. Classroom work will consist of lectures and practical sessions (bibliographic research, working with sources, preparation of materials, etc.).