The Author/Translator Interactional Process. A Case Study

See Naples and Kill (1988) is a lively and colourful novel by the con-temporary English writer, Gregory Dowling, translated into Italian in 2015. Following the tradition of translation studies (Venuti 2000, Bass-nett 2002, Cronin 2006), this paper analyses the rewriting process of literary translation, considering in particular the fruitful but sometimes tense and even conflictual relationship between writer and translator. The translation of the novel See Naples and Kill was an ongoing rewriting process entailing a constant dialogue between the writer and the translator. Therefore, the study aims at answering two main ques-tions: what happens if the rewriting process of translation is constant-ly questioned by the author? What happens if the author has a good mastery of the target language and s/he is her/himself a translator? By exploring the relationship between translation and re-creation, the research focuses on the differences and similarities between the primary creation (source text) and the secondary creation (target text), and aims to verify in which way the dialogic encounter of two different personalities and cultures does not make them merge but, by retaining their own uniqueness, leads eventually to their mutually en-riching each other. A comparative analysis of the source text and the different drafts of the translated version accompanied by the author’s comments will shed light on the tense author-translator relationship in the specific case under investigation and how both actors handle this tension in order to create a new work resulting from the (dis)agreement of the two parties.