Gigliola Sulis speaks to Ann Goldstein: writing locally, translating globally

ABSTRACT

The conversation focuses on attitudes and trends in the US publishing market toward translated fiction. The strategies used by Goldstein as a translator of geo-centred and multilingual Italian novels are analysed, with reference to her translations of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Primo Levi, Elena Ferrante, Milena Agus, and Amara Lakhous.

KEYWORDS:

• Multilingualism
• translation of dialects
• Italian regions
• US literary market
• Elena Ferrante
• Pier Paolo Pasolini
• Primo Levi
• Milena Agus
• Amara Lakhous

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Three percent – a resource for international literature at the University of Rochester. Editor: Chad Post. http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?s=database. Accessed 31 May 2018. Here are the complete data: 2008: 367 titles (Italian: 14 = 4% – all figures are rounded up); 2009: 374 (Italian: 24 = 6%); 2010: 356 (It.: 18 = 5%); 2011: 394 (It.: 22 = 6%); 2012: 470 (It.: 35 = 7%); 2013: 554 (It.: 35 = 6%); 2014: 618 (It.: 36 = 6%); 2015: 599 (It.: 41 = 7%); 2016: 633 (It.: 31 = 5%); 2017: 531 (It.: 30 = 6%). In 2008 Italian ranked ninth after French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Russian, Japanese, Portuguese and Chinese, and in 2010 it was in fourth position, preceded by French, Spanish, German and Japanese.

2. For a list of publishers that have a record of published translations or that specialize in publishing translations see Pen America’s website, Publishers of works in translation. https://pen.org/publishers-of-works-in-translation. Accessed 31 May 2018.

3. On translating Agus’ Sardinian novels for Australian readers, see (Maher 2014).