Oriental Studies, Comparison, and Translation at the Origins of the Italian Nation

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An Overview of the Early Journey of Azerbaijani Traditional Poetry into English Translations

This paper explores the role of translation in shaping intercultural understanding and the transmission of literary heritage, focusing specifically on the translation of Azerbaijani classical poetry into English. Drawing on key theoretical perspectives in translation studies and historical examples of literary transmission, the study situates Azerbaijani literature within a global context. It traces early encounters with Azerbaijani poets such as Seyyid Imadaddin Nasimi and highlights the contributions of Orientalist scholars in bringing figures like Nizami Ganjavi, Muhammad Fuzuli, and Gazi Burhaneddin to the attention of English-speaking audiences. The paper discusses the challenges posed by the multilingual character of Azerbaijani literary production, especially the use of Arabic and Persian, and debates around the representativeness of translated works. Through a selective analysis of key translations and scholarly efforts, the article underscores the pivotal role of translation in elevating Azerbaijani literary aesthetics and calls for further research to ensure a more comprehensive global appreciation of its cultural and poetic legacy.

Crafting Free Russian-Soviet Literature in Italy

In the realm of published works, whether original literary creations or translations, the significance of paratexts and peritexts in shaping a text’s reception cannot be overstated. In the encyclopaedia entry titled Livre (1990) Jacques-Alexandre Breton, Henri-Jean Martin and Jean Toulet observe: “Tous les éléments constitutifs du livre, la lettre, la mise en pages, l’illustration, la reliure peuvent être mobilisés pour renvoyer à des valeurs autres qui exaltent ou occultent sa fonction de communication”. In the famous Seuils (1987), Gérard Genette emphasises the centrality of the cover and peritext as the “lieu du label”, constituting “un trait explicite et localisé” that conveys specific suggestions to the audience. It goes beyond the mere details of the author’s name and the work’s title to convey to the public an overarching idea. It is precisely within this conceptual framework that the series of the Italian publisher Jaca Book Di fronte e attraverso [In front and across] has thrived. This series, initiated in 1977 with the release of Lidia Chukovskaia’s tamizdat novel La casa deserta [The Deserted House], stands as Jaca Book’s inaugural venture into Soviet and Russian dissent literature. Since its inception, it has been dedicated to publishing literary texts emerging from Soviet and Russian dissent. The series stands as a testament to the profound impact of paratextual and peritextual elements in shaping both narrative and reception. The publications in the series are devoted to a wide range of texts belonging to what I define as “free Russian-Soviet literature,” adopting the category formulated by Iurii Mal’tsev in the title of his renowned tamizdat volume Vol’naia russkaia literatura (1976). This definition does not refer solely to unofficial or dissident literature (or other similar expressions that will be discussed in this paper), but to the entire body of independent literary production — that which stands apart from the official canon of Socialist Realism.

Missionary Translations: The Activities of the American Board in the Ottoman Empire (1820–1923)

Beginning in the first half of the nineteenth century, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) established a significant presence in the Ottoman Empire through its activities in translation, printing, and education. From the 1820s to the early twentieth century, the Board produced a broad corpus of translated texts, including biblical works as well as textbooks in science, medicine, and the humanities. Approaching these activities from a translation studies perspective, this article argues that translation constituted a central institutional practice that structured the Board’s publishing and educational enterprises. Drawing on archival sources and missionary accounts, the study shows how translation shaped pedagogical practices, mediated the circulation of knowledge, and contributed to the codification of minority vernaculars in Anatolia. Missionary presses and educational institutions constituted key sites where translation was systematically carried out in conjunction with religious instruction and publishing activities. In particular, translations into Armenian and Bulgarian played a formative role in the development of modern written forms of these languages. By foregrounding translation as an analytical lens, the article reconsiders missionary activity in the Ottoman Empire and demonstrates the relevance of missionary translation to discussions of language planning, print culture, and sociocultural change in the nineteenth century.

Bibliomigrancy from periphery to semi-periphery

Within the study of world literature and the sociology of translation, and with a Bourdieusian backdrop, this article deals with literary translation flows from the Hispanophone Caribbean to Sweden. The overall aim of the article is to explore the bibliomigrancy of this translation flow, i.e., how and by which means Hispanophone Caribbean literature travels in “the world republic of letters” to reach Swedish readers. Another aim is to test the validity of the double consecration hypothesis for this literature, stating that Hispanophone Caribbean literature needs to be consecrated twice in the global translation field in order to be selected for translation into Swedish, firstly within the centres of the former colonial power, Madrid and Barcelona, and secondly within the British and American consecration centres of London and New York. Other aims are to examine if there are any niche Swedish publishing houses for Hispanophone translated literature, the position in the publishing field of the houses publishing this literature, and who the translators are. The material studied consists of 25 novels written by 15 authors, who are currently living in or have emigrated from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, translated into Swedish during the period 1990–2015.

A Comparative Study of the Three English Versions of Selected Lines from The Everlasting Regret from the Perspective of Berman’s Translation Ethics

Domestication and foreignization are two common strategies for translators to deal with cultural differences. Based on Berman’s translation ethics and twelve deformations, this paper takes Bai Juyi’s the Everlasting Regret (selected sentences) as the object of study, adopts close reading and comparative analysis, and selects the English versions of Xu Yuanchong, Xu Zhongjie and W. J. B. Fletcher for comparative analysis, focusing on the different degrees of domestication and foreignization in the aspects of word choice, syntax, rhetorical organization, cultural transmission and so on, as well as the effects caused by these differences. The study found that in the English translation of classical Chinese poetry, in addition to the necessary domestication adjustment, the translator should retain the cultural background and aesthetic logic of the original poem as much as possible, so that the translation can achieve the purpose of conveying the cultural nature of this special literary genre. Therefore, in the English translation, foreignization enjoys ethical priority.