L'immobilità del traduttore: la traduzione dei classici moderni inglesi in Italia

Translations, says Gideon Toury, are facts of target cultures †" but the perceived status of source texts has a bearing on how these are reflected or refracted in the target language. This proposition is particularly evident in the case of classics: when translators have to work on literary creations occupying a pivotal position in the source/target cultures, they adopt strategies of literalness and ennoblement which betray a quasi-religious awe †" on the one hand, a desire to ruffle the surface of the revered original as little as possible; and on the other, a determination to reproduce the supposed †œclassical qualities†� of the classic even when they are not present in the source. In this dissertation, Paola Venturi studies how the †œidea of classic†� influences translation theory and practice, and substantiates her theoretical observations by looking at Italian translations of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English classics. A marked †" and historically determined †" disparity between source and target readerships, and the translators' reverence for their prestigious originals, conspire to produce Italian versions which are much more †œwooden†� and †œelegant†� than their English counterparts.