Following its translation into more than thirty languages, Roberto Saviano’s non-fiction novel, ‘Gomorrah’, has unveiled the endless saga of Naples’ crime syndicate to a vast number of readers across the globe. Literary critics and reviewers in the UK and in the US have widely acclaimed Saviano’s talent in depicting the corruption plaguing Naples’ gloomy and degraded hinterland, although the socio-cultural context portrayed in ‘Gomorra’ is naturally distant from the repertoire of the target culture: the text is widely populated by culture-bound concepts and implicit meanings, which further complicates the translation process. Through a contrastive analysis of the Italian and English versions of the exposé, the study explores the strategies employed in translating the voices and deeds of Naples’ mobsters, as well as the socio-economic setting of the Camorra (from which the book’s title originates its bitter play on words). With reference to types of non-equivalence between the two language versions, the paper investigates to what extent the English translation contributes to the identity-building process of the Camorra as a separate and far more deadly criminal organization vis-à-vis the Sicilian Mafia.

Italy’s Other Mafia: a Journey into Cross-Cultural Translation / Caliendo, Giuditta. - In: TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES. - ISSN 1932-2798. - 2:7(2012), pp. 191-210.

Italy’s Other Mafia: a Journey into Cross-Cultural Translation

CALIENDO, GIUDITTA
2012

Abstract

Following its translation into more than thirty languages, Roberto Saviano’s non-fiction novel, ‘Gomorrah’, has unveiled the endless saga of Naples’ crime syndicate to a vast number of readers across the globe. Literary critics and reviewers in the UK and in the US have widely acclaimed Saviano’s talent in depicting the corruption plaguing Naples’ gloomy and degraded hinterland, although the socio-cultural context portrayed in ‘Gomorra’ is naturally distant from the repertoire of the target culture: the text is widely populated by culture-bound concepts and implicit meanings, which further complicates the translation process. Through a contrastive analysis of the Italian and English versions of the exposé, the study explores the strategies employed in translating the voices and deeds of Naples’ mobsters, as well as the socio-economic setting of the Camorra (from which the book’s title originates its bitter play on words). With reference to types of non-equivalence between the two language versions, the paper investigates to what extent the English translation contributes to the identity-building process of the Camorra as a separate and far more deadly criminal organization vis-à-vis the Sicilian Mafia.
2012
Italy’s Other Mafia: a Journey into Cross-Cultural Translation / Caliendo, Giuditta. - In: TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES. - ISSN 1932-2798. - 2:7(2012), pp. 191-210.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11588/509021
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