In, on and through Translation

This study focuses on Antonio Tabucchi’s texts in, on and through translation. It combines an analysis of the ways his texts have been translated into other languages with an examination of the way his translations, critical essays and fictions reflect on the value and possibilities of translation. The book suggests that using translation as a means through which to approach Tabucchi’s works enables us to both develop new perspectives on Tabucchi’s texts and to reflect on some key issues in translation studies. These include the way we think about the intersections between translation and other forms of writing, between translation and space, between translation and memory, between translation as process and product. This study combines a broad mapping of Tabucchi’s travelling texts with more detailed textual analysis of selected works themselves. One of the study’s major innovations is the analysis of a new body of interviews with Tabucchi’s translators from across Europe, Asia and America. The interviews, conducted as part of the study, offer fascinating new perspectives on the transnational movement of the same (often Eurocentric) texts between and across languages as well as revealing the possibilities and challenges the translation process offers in different linguistic and cultural spaces worldwide.

«Building on an impressive list of critical readings and interviews, Wren-Owens uses the lens of translation to offer a precise and evocative study of Tabucchi’s works. This innovative volume will appeal to scholars of both literature and translation.» (Professor Rita Wilson, Monash University) «This book maps the complex relationship between Antonio Tabucchi’s literary production and processes of translation. Following the links between Tabucchi as an author, his translators and his readers, Wren-Owens tells an intricate as well as illuminating tale about one of the most important figures in contemporary European literature and how his voice travelled across languages and cultures.» (Professor Loredana Polezzi, Cardiff University)

Liz Wren-Owens is Reader in Italian Studies and Translation Studies at the School of Modern Languages at Cardiff University. She previously taught at the Universities of Warwick, Bath and Bristol. She has published on impegno and the engaged intellectual, migration to and from Italy, the Italian diaspora in Wales and Scotland, Italian empire and Italian detective fiction.