Cristina Peligra

• Modern Languages, Newcastle University
• Email: C.peligra2@ncl.ac.uk

My research compares translation strategies in Italian and English to render issues of culture, identity, hybridity and colonial relations as presented in selected novels by the Dutch author Hella S. Haasse dealing with colonisers’ experience in the former colony of the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia: “Oeroeg” (1948) and “Heren van de thee” (1992). Italian and English are taken as target languages hypothesising that cultural differences in the target cultures’ background might influence translation strategies. However, the study suggests that literary, practical and marketing constraints also play a crucial role in the process. The object of analysis is twofold: on the one hand, the study investigates (verbal and visual) translation paratexts, i.e. those elements accompanying a book and presenting it to its readers (e.g. covers, prefaces). On the other hand, the research studies, both quantitatively and qualitatively, textual translation strategies to transpose culture-specific items, i.e. those elements creating a translation problem because they may not exist in the target language or have a different connotation, and other relevant textual references to the issues under scrutiny. The research aims to shed light on the manipulative power of translation, and to confirm the interconnection of paratext, text and context.

Supervisory Team: Dr Francis Jones, Modern Languages (Newcastle), Dr Laura Leonardo, Modern Languages (Newcastle).

Start Date: October 2015