Books by Rita Wilson
Routledge Series: Creative, Social and Transnational Perspectives on Translation, 2020
Edited by Susannah Radstone and Rita Wilson, this international and interdisciplinary volume expl... more Edited by Susannah Radstone and Rita Wilson, this international and interdisciplinary volume explores the relations between translation, migration and memory. It brings together humanities researchers from a range of fields including history, memory studies, literary, cultural and media studies. The innovative perspective understands translation’s explanatory reach as extending beyond the comprehension of one language by another to encompass those complex and multi-layered processes of parsing by means of which the unfamiliar and the familiar, the old home and the new are brought into conversation and connection.
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Springer, 2019
This book addresses one of the most central, yet criticised, solutions for international tourism ... more This book addresses one of the most central, yet criticised, solutions for international tourism promotion, namely translation. It brings together theory and practice, explores the various challenges involved in translating tourism promotional materials (TPMs), and puts forward a sustainable solution capable of achieving maximum impact in the industry and society.
The solution, in the form of a Cultural-Conceptual Translation (CCT) model, identifies effective translation strategies and offers a platform for making TPM translation more streamlined, efficient and easily communicated. Using the English-Malay language combination as a case study, the book analyses tourism discourse and includes a road test of the CCT model on actual end-users of TPMs as well as tourism marketers in the industry. Guidelines for best practices in the industry round out the book, which offers valuable insights not only for researchers but also, and more importantly, various stakeholders in the translation, tourism and advertising industries.
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This volume presents fresh approaches to the role that translation – in its many forms – plays in... more This volume presents fresh approaches to the role that translation – in its many forms – plays in enabling and mediating global cultural exchange. As modes of communication and textual production continue to evolve, the field of translation studies has an increasingly important role in exploring the ways in which words, images and performances are translated and reinterpreted in new socio-cultural contexts. The book includes an innovative mix of literary, cultural and intersemiotic perspectives and represents a wide range of languages and cultures. The contributions are all linked by a shared focus on the place of translation in the contemporary world, and the ways in which translation, and the discipline of translation studies, can shed light on questions of inter- and hypertextuality, multimodality and globalization in contemporary cultural production.
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The essays in this volume address one of the central issues in literary translation, namely the r... more The essays in this volume address one of the central issues in literary translation, namely the relationship between the creative freedom enjoyed by the translator and the multiplicity of constraints to which translation is necessarily subject. The links between an author’s translation work and his or her own writing are likewise explored.
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... Monash Romance Studies General Editor: Brian Nelson Advisory Board: Philip Anderson, Janet Be... more ... Monash Romance Studies General Editor: Brian Nelson Advisory Board: Philip Anderson, Janet Beizer, Ross Chambers, Peter Cryle, Franchise Gaillard, Djelal Kadir, Stewart King, Rosemary Lloyd, Alfredo Martinez, Malcolm Read, Keith Reader, Susanna Scarparo, Tim Unwin ...
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Routledge, 2017
Since the early 1980s, the novel has been deemed by many Italian women writers to be the most apt... more Since the early 1980s, the novel has been deemed by many Italian women writers to be the most apt vehicle for creating positive images of the future of women. The novel becomes the space for confession, while at the same time allowing greater expressive freedom. Narrative levels become mirrors, narrator and character are immersed in the same past, a sort of double memory is formulated. In this game of 'speculations', the search for an individual identity (truth) is also taken into account, namely, the creation of an identity through a 'double subjectivity'. There is no longer one voice for the 'feminine role' and, by creating heroines who are also intellectuals, these authors offer their readers models of alternative versions of self. The study is a partial inventory of the new women's narrative and aims to provide a broad literary framework through which both the general reader and the student can appreciate the characteristics and innovations of contemporary Italian women's fiction. The writers chosen for this study (Ginevra Bompiani, Edith Bruck, Paola Capriolo, Francesca Duranti, Rosetta Loy, Giuliana Morandini, Marta Morazzoni, Anna Maria Ortese, Sandra Petrignanni, Fabrizia Ramondino, Elisabetta Rasy and Francesca Sanvitale) have achieved both critical acclaim and public recognition and their texts demonstrate the richness of voices, topics and structures in Italian women's writing today.
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Articles and Book Chapters by Rita Wilson
Handbook of Translation Studies, 2021
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Routledge Handbook of Translation and the City, 2021
Through a reading of recent transcultural narratives of migration, this chapter explores how loca... more Through a reading of recent transcultural narratives of migration, this chapter explores how local spaces of situated multiplicity in inner city and suburban Melbourne can be said to constitute sites of translation. Melbourne has frequently been discursively constructed as a city committed to both (re)telling its past and imagining its future through multiple literary and artistic mediums. Contemporary literary narratives have brought to the fore how recent migration flows have contributed to the changing face of urban neighbourhoods. Combining insights from cultural geography and translation studies, I examine the diverse ways in which these superdiverse urban spaces are read and incorporated into creative practices and personal narratives of place. I argue that transcultural literary and artistic narratives, like the ones selected for discussion here, offer a new angle of approach to the multiform forces that create translational city spaces by deploying creative practices that accentuate the movement, complexity and texture of discursive interactions in transcultural encounters. The chapter concludes by suggesting that transcultural textual practices concretely contribute to the disruption of stereotypes and fixed notions of national/ethnic belonging, and to a better understanding of spaces of cultural translation.
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Transcultural Italies: Mobility, Memory and Translation, 2020
In recent decades, translingual and transcultural literary narratives have brought to the fore th... more In recent decades, translingual and transcultural literary narratives have brought to the fore the ways in which geographic and linguistic mobility are connected, and how the interplay of languages within superdiverse urban spaces contributes to an individual’s experience of the city. This has led, in turn, to a new engagement with the interrelated issues of linguistic and cultural diversity and the spatial construction of identity and otherness in relation to a ‘sense of place’ that merges global influences with localized place meanings. Combining insights from cultural geography and translation studies, this chapter examines recent literary texts that focus on multi-ethnic urban scenarios in Italy. It will be argued that literary representations of specific linguistic practices in everyday transcultural encounters concretely contribute to understanding the central role of translation in the discursive negotiation of social and cultural identities in global multilingual landscapes.
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Modern Italy, 2020
The linguistic and cultural identity of transnational writers who choose to write in an adopted l... more The linguistic and cultural identity of transnational writers who choose to write in an adopted language or to self-translate, has gained increasing interest among researchers over the last decade. Approaches to the topic have ranged from textual analyses of translingual narratives and language memoirs to more ontological investigations of the processes of identity-formation in transcultural frameworks. Acknowledging that there is no one-to-one correspondence between linguistic units and ethnic, social or cultural formations, this paper considers the relationship between the literary practices of contemporary translingual writers and the role of language both in the formation of personal identities and in the reconfiguration of constructions of national identity and literary belonging. Specifically, I examine how two contemporary women writers, Francesca Marciano and Jhumpa Lahiri, who each represent a remarkable case of self-conscious linguistic transformation, interrogate the traditional construct of a monolingual, mono-ethnic and mono-cultural national identity. I argue that their autofictions reflect the multilingual and transcultural reality of contemporary transnational literature and instantiate broader issues connected with the definition, categorisation and consequent evaluation of literary canons and literary citizenship.
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Modern Italy, 2020
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Modern Italy
Relations between Italy and other countries – such as China – are often imagined within a binary ... more Relations between Italy and other countries – such as China – are often imagined within a binary frame that essentialises national and ethnic communities and fails to recognise the complex transcultural ramifications of an increasingly globalising world. This is particularly problematic when studying those social and cultural spaces that Ilaria Vanni (2016) has described as transcultural edges. These are marginal spaces of transition and encounters between different cultures and societies, which have the potential to create new, innovative and productive ecosystems. We argue that one such space is Prato, an industrial town near Florence, well known for its textile district, and host to one of the largest Chinese communities in Europe. Significant academic attention has been devoted to the Chinese community in Prato, including studies of its social and economic impact on the host local community and the textile industry. Most of these studies tend to isolate the Chinese community from the ethnic complexity of the area, within a binary frame that fails to acknowledge the large presence of other migrant groups and the reciprocal permeability and transculturation between the Chinese community, the Italian community, and other ethnic groups. As part of a larger project, a group of scholars is currently digitally remapping Prato, to include quantitative and qualitative geolocalised information collected through a multidisciplinary method that includes ethnography, media analysis, translation studies, transcultural studies, and digital participatory action research. Through a brief description of the aims and characteristics of this research project, the paper will discuss the importance of rethinking the relationship between Italy and China, and between Italians and Chinese, within a more complex and nuanced transcultural frame.
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GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies , 2018
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Perspectives: Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 2018
As the tourism industry continues to grow globally, tourism promotional materials (TPMs) are beco... more As the tourism industry continues to grow globally, tourism promotional materials (TPMs) are becoming one of the most translated materials in the world. Nevertheless, despite the high demand, this type of translated material has been the subject of criticism over the past four decades. Although culture, or rather cultural differences, have been identified as the main reason behind the failure of translations in the tourism industry, no straightforward solution to dealing with the problem has been found. In an attempt to address this shortcoming, this paper proposes a Cultural-Conceptual Translation (CCT) model, which leverages two key notions: cultural conceptualisation and destination image. Cultural conceptualisation, which is drawn from cultural linguistics, is a key manifestation of the oft-overlooked ‘silent’ or ‘unconscious’ level of culture, while the notion of destination image, which is drawn from tourism studies, has been identified as a crucial element in tourism promotion and advertising. We argue that the effectiveness of TPM translations relies on the (re)construction of ‘favourable’ destination images based on the cultural conceptualisation of the target audience. The viability and effectiveness of this model within the context of the commercial world of international tourism has been tested on TPM end-users through focus groups, and on TPM translation commissioners through a pilot project in which a TPM was translated from English to Malay. The results of the ‘road test’ were very positive, suggesting that applying the CCT model has the potential to improve translation outcomes in the area of tourism promotion.
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LEA - Lingue e letterature d’Oriente e d’Occidente, 2017
Translators, as intercultural mediators, play various roles, among which as singers and performer... more Translators, as intercultural mediators, play various roles, among which as singers and performers. Striking examples of singing and performing translators can be found in multicultural Australia. They direct Italian Australian folk choirs and transform, enrich, and enhance the Italian folk repertoire and cultural traditions across continental borders and language barriers. By applying methodological approaches, at the crossroads between translation and performance, theorized by Maria Tymoczko (1995), Barbara Godard (2000), and Sandra Bermann (2014), we will demonstrate how cross-cultural and mobile folk performances and traditions are connecting communities in contemporary Australia. In 1996, Translation Studies scholar Theo Hermans published a seminal article on the voice of the translator. Apart from identifying valuable scenarios where that voice can be heard prominently and notably, Hermans demonstrated how unique the translator's voice can be. A limitation of Hermans' study is the focus on the written text and the translator's written discursive presence, which effectively rules out another, equally important, field of research: the oral and the aural nature of texts. Until quite recently, there has been little investigation of the translation processes occurring within and around music. In an effort to partially fill this gap, this article provides a case study that illustrates how folk music and its performative drive, aided by the translational strategies adopted by different translators, has fostered multiculturalism and transnationalism as inclusive social practices.
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Reconstructing Identity A Transdisciplinary Approach (Eds.: Monk, N., Lindgren, M., McDonald, S., Pasfield-Neofitou, S.), 2017
This chapter takes as its point of departure the notion that a “translational identity” is fundam... more This chapter takes as its point of departure the notion that a “translational identity” is fundamental to a body of narratives, lately appearing in great numbers on the European literary scene, written by authors who have been variously described as “migrant”, “diasporic”, and, more recently, “transnational” and “translingual”. The cultural self-identification of “transnationals/translinguals” is often represented through a rhetoric of “in-betweenness” or hybridity. Many transnational writers readily assume the role of a bridge or an interpreter between cultures. Wilson’s focus is on contemporary literary production in Italy and examples will be provided of writers who, in their attempt to navigate between languages and social contexts associated with these languages, provide an opportunity to reflect on identity construction in border situations, especially those created by the socio-political and cultural processes of globalization.
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Self-Translation and Power: Negotiating Identities in European Multilingual Contexts (eds O. Castro, S. Mainer, S. Page), 2017
Taking an author-oriented approach to the study of self-translation, this chapter seeks to explor... more Taking an author-oriented approach to the study of self-translation, this chapter seeks to explore the links between self-translation as rewriting and the negotiation of cultural identity. In particular, it investigates how self-translation practices in translingual writing not only dramatise the cohabitation of languages but also explore the implications of the “self” in translation, which, in turn, encompass a much wider field of possibilities than moving from a source text to a target text. It is argued that translingual writing viewed as self-translation underlines the question of agency, how the subject can sustain complex, fluid, heterogeneous notions of identity by working with the intricacy of languages. In each case, the linguistic choice of translingual writers is understood to be political in valence and to represent an ideological statement about identity. An exemplary case is provided by the work of Amara Lakhous, who writes in both Arabic and Italian, and for whom writing across languages constitutes a liberating, empowering force potentiating encounter and transformation. Through a critical reading of Lakhous’s work, the chapter aims to show how translingual writing represents and reflects upon contemporary “sites of translation” that are the by-product of international migratory flows, and, by doing so contests critical concepts such as “mother tongue” and “original” as well as challenging simplistic assumptions of citizenship, national, and cultural identity.
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Over the last twenty years, Italian “migration literature” has made significant contributions to... more Over the last twenty years, Italian “migration literature” has made significant contributions to the redefinition of the country’s literary and cultural scene. While the initial phase can best be conceptualized as a generic “micro-system” encompassing canonical genres such as (auto)biography and the Bildungsroman, more recently, narratives of migration have diversified radically, exhibiting a high degree of linguistic and genre experimentation. The defining feature of some of the more successful recent novelists lies in their active engagement with critical social and political issues that concern contemporary Italian society through the vehicle of the crime fiction genre. A case in point is provided by Algerian-born Amara Lakhous, whose four recent novels Scontro di civiltà per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio (2006), Divorzio all’islamica a viale Marconi (2010), Contesa per un maialino italianissimo a San Salvario (2013) and La zingarata della verginella di Via Ormea (2014) all use strategies of genre hybridization (polyphonic migration narratives blended with giallo and noir structures) to problematize notions of citizenship and cultural identity. This article argues that borrowing the conventions of the giallo/noir enables Lakhous both to provide new insights into shifting constructions of “Italianness”/citizenship in a period characterized by the transition from national to transcultural communities and to accentuate the continuity of the dialogical relationship between the crime fiction genre and contemporary social reality.
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Books by Rita Wilson
The solution, in the form of a Cultural-Conceptual Translation (CCT) model, identifies effective translation strategies and offers a platform for making TPM translation more streamlined, efficient and easily communicated. Using the English-Malay language combination as a case study, the book analyses tourism discourse and includes a road test of the CCT model on actual end-users of TPMs as well as tourism marketers in the industry. Guidelines for best practices in the industry round out the book, which offers valuable insights not only for researchers but also, and more importantly, various stakeholders in the translation, tourism and advertising industries.
Articles and Book Chapters by Rita Wilson
The solution, in the form of a Cultural-Conceptual Translation (CCT) model, identifies effective translation strategies and offers a platform for making TPM translation more streamlined, efficient and easily communicated. Using the English-Malay language combination as a case study, the book analyses tourism discourse and includes a road test of the CCT model on actual end-users of TPMs as well as tourism marketers in the industry. Guidelines for best practices in the industry round out the book, which offers valuable insights not only for researchers but also, and more importantly, various stakeholders in the translation, tourism and advertising industries.
International Migration, 52: 78–91. doi: 10.1111/imig.12125
This symposium – the first international conference of its kind – brings together researchers and practitioners from Australia, the United States, Italy and other locations to explore the vicissitudes of Italians and Italian identity in the transcultural spaces defined by mobility.
The conference aimed to provide an interdisciplinary platform to identify, discuss and debate those trends and turning-points which characterise advances in society, science and the arts in terms of clashes, connections and encounters. Full conference program (including abstracts) is available to download.
Registration now open
http://youtu.be/3cUNzrblmYM