Italians in films
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Carla Mereu Keating
Abstract
This chapter discusses a meaningful selection of US and British films that portray Italianness in order to show how these hetero-constructed images have been variously received in Italy throughout the 20th century. To convey images of their own ethnicity and national identity to a domestic audience, Italian film translators are presented with a series of challenges: what cultural and semiotic processes are at work in Italy at the moment of translating stereotypes of Italians? Are there images which have been traditionally considered unsuitable for projection in Italian cinemas? What translational options do the translators have at their disposal? Is there any political or social pressure which favours or discourages one particular translational solution over another? The chapter will show that cases of manipulation were frequent and that the translations were often influenced by issues of nationalism and by questions surrounding the use of the standard Italian language and of its regional varieties in films.
Abstract
This chapter discusses a meaningful selection of US and British films that portray Italianness in order to show how these hetero-constructed images have been variously received in Italy throughout the 20th century. To convey images of their own ethnicity and national identity to a domestic audience, Italian film translators are presented with a series of challenges: what cultural and semiotic processes are at work in Italy at the moment of translating stereotypes of Italians? Are there images which have been traditionally considered unsuitable for projection in Italian cinemas? What translational options do the translators have at their disposal? Is there any political or social pressure which favours or discourages one particular translational solution over another? The chapter will show that cases of manipulation were frequent and that the translations were often influenced by issues of nationalism and by questions surrounding the use of the standard Italian language and of its regional varieties in films.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- On translated images, stereotypes and disciplines 1
-
Translation and historical trajectories of images
- Translating identity 21
- The adventures of a Amsterdam Spaniard 37
- National images in transit 53
- The image of Spain in Flanders as shaped by the translations of Jozef Simons 69
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Translation and the construction of hetero-Images
- Englishness in German translations of Alice in Wonderland 87
- Champion of the humiliated and insulted or xenophobic satirist? 109
- Italians in films 127
-
Translation and the reconstruction of hetero-images
- Comparing national images in translations of popular fiction 145
- Bel Paese or Spaghetti noir ? 163
- How Algeria’s multilingual condition and colonial history is obscured 181
- Translation as blockage, propagation and recreation of ethnic images 201
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Translation and auto-images
- The construction of national images through news translation 219
- Images of turmoil. Italy portrayed in Britain and re-mirrored in Italy 239
- Images of Italy? 257
- (Trans)forming national images in translation 277
- Nation in translation 299
-
Envoi
- Sundry remarks about a discipline in the making by an eye-witness 317
- Name index 325
- Subject index 329
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- On translated images, stereotypes and disciplines 1
-
Translation and historical trajectories of images
- Translating identity 21
- The adventures of a Amsterdam Spaniard 37
- National images in transit 53
- The image of Spain in Flanders as shaped by the translations of Jozef Simons 69
-
Translation and the construction of hetero-Images
- Englishness in German translations of Alice in Wonderland 87
- Champion of the humiliated and insulted or xenophobic satirist? 109
- Italians in films 127
-
Translation and the reconstruction of hetero-images
- Comparing national images in translations of popular fiction 145
- Bel Paese or Spaghetti noir ? 163
- How Algeria’s multilingual condition and colonial history is obscured 181
- Translation as blockage, propagation and recreation of ethnic images 201
-
Translation and auto-images
- The construction of national images through news translation 219
- Images of turmoil. Italy portrayed in Britain and re-mirrored in Italy 239
- Images of Italy? 257
- (Trans)forming national images in translation 277
- Nation in translation 299
-
Envoi
- Sundry remarks about a discipline in the making by an eye-witness 317
- Name index 325
- Subject index 329
