Reviews

“With a focus on the nature and the cultural significance of literary translation, this fascinating collection of essays incisively analyzes the creation, circulation and reception of translated texts. Contributions from both practitioners and scholars here offer a range of perspectives and case studies that explore how writing and translation intersect, how and why texts are disseminated across linguistic and other borders, and what forms of gate-keeping control access to the marketplace. Like translation itself, this volume helpfully opens up new vistas on texts and literary systems.”

– Valerie Henitiuk, Director, British Centre for Literary Translation

“This work is at the cutting edge of literary translation research. Two aspects are particularly appealing. One is hearing the translator’s reflexive voice speaking about his/her creative processes. The other is the way that it explores ‘world literature’ and international literary flows, via case studies that draw fascinating conclusions beyond their time, text and place.”

—Francis R. Jones, Newcastle University, UK

Table of Contents

Introduction Brian Nelson and Brigid Maher

Part 1: Creation: Literature and Translation in the Looking Glass

1. The Art of Hearing the Voice Julie Rose

2. Memory, War and Translation: Mercè Rodoreda’s In Diamond Square Peter Bush

3. Szymek from the Village and Joe from Missouri: Problems of Voice in Translating Wiesław Myśliwski’s Stone Upon Stone Bill Johnston

4. Understanding Through Translation: Rilke’s New Poems Luke Fischer

5. Cesare De Marchi and the Author-Translator Dilemma Luigi Gussago

Part 2: Circulation: Texts and Their Transmission

6. Inculturation as Elephant: On Translation and the Spread of Literary Modernity Anthony Pym

7. Rainer Maria Rilke in Lucian Blaga’s Translations from English Sean Cotter

8. Rabindranath Tagore and ‘World Literature’ Mridula Nath Chakraborty

9. Buzzati’s French Connection: Translation as a Catalyst in a Literary Career Felix Siddell

10. A Crook’s Tour: Translation, Pseudotranslation and Foreignness in Anglo-Italian Crime Fiction Brigid Maher

Part 3: Reception: Texts and Their Readers

11. Of Migrants and Working Men: How Pietro di Donato’s Christ in Concrete Travelled Between the US and Italy Through Translation Loredana Polezzi

12. Terra Australis Incognita Even Now? The Reception of Australian Literature in Italian Translation Rita Wilson

13. Prizing Translation: Book Awards and Literary Translation Sally-Ann Spencer

14. Footnotes sans Frontières: Translation and Textual Scholarship Esther Allen

About the Editors

Brian Nelson is Professor Emeritus of French Studies and Translation Studies at Monash University, Melbourne, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He is well known for his critical studies and translations of the novels of Emile Zola.

Brigid Maher is Lecturer in Italian Studies at La Trobe University. She is the author of Recreation and Style: Translating Humour in Italian and English Literature (Benjamins) and co-editor of Words, Images and Performances in Translation (Continuum) and The AALITRA Review. She has translated novels by Milena Agus and Nicola Lagioia.