Sono capitato davvero casualmente sul Call for Papers, ma la data in cui si terrà il convegno mi ha colpito: è quella del mio compleanno!
C’è tempo sino al 23 febbraio per inviare il proprio contributo su “Women, Language(s) and Translation in the Italian Tradition”, scrivendo a Helena Sanson (hls37@cam.ac.uk).
A me è venuta in mente subito la figura di Adele Masi, seconda moglie di Michele Lessona, rivalutata anche come traduttrice dalla storica Paola Govoni nel quarto capitolo del suo libro fondamentale (per le mie ricerche) Un pubblico per la scienza. La divulgazione scientifica nell’Italia in formazione (Carocci 2002) e poi approfondita ulteriormente nel suo contributo Adele Masi Lessona in E. Luciano, C.S. Roero (a cura di), Numeri, atomi e alambicchi. Donne e scienza in Piemonte dal 1840 al 1960 – Parte prima (Centro studi e documentazione pensiero femminile, Torino 2008, pp. 8-14, che non ho però consultato).
Per chi non ne sapesse nulla, può ancora trovare su internet tracce dell’incontro su “Michele Lessona, naturalista divulgatore“, svoltosi presso il Museo di Scienze Naturali di Torino sempre il 7 novembre, ma del 2011 (in realtà un altro sito scrive che fu rinviata al 28 novembre causa maltempo): la relazione di Govoni metteva a fuoco «i principali scopi e le funzioni della multiforme attività editoriale di Michele Lessona e Adele Masi negli anni del successo della cosiddetta “scienza per tutti”: un genere editoriale di cui i due furono protagonisti nei primi decenni dopo l’unità».
Ancora meglio, si vedano i cenni redatti da Ariane Dröscher nel sito/dizionario biografico di scienziate italiane, coordinato da un’altra brava studiosa italiana di storia della scienza, Raffaella Simili: Scienza a due voci. Le donne nella scienza italiana dal Settecento al Novecento.
Paola Govoni in un convegno a Cagliari (“Eva Mameli Calvino, itinerario al microscopio”, 6-7 novembre 2014)
Chiusa la divagazione, passo a ricopiare qui sotto la presentazione e i dati essenziali per chi fosse interessato a partecipare al convegno che si terrà presso il Clare College di Cambridge (UK) il 7 e 8 novembre 2018.
Key-note speaker: Professor Peter Burke, Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge
Guest of honour: Dacia Maraini, internationally acclaimed novelist, essayist, playwright, and translator
This conference intends to explore women’s roles in the circulation of ideas and the dissemination of knowledge in the Italian tradition, across the centuries, by means of translations. It focuses on the role of women as translators, as well as, more broadly, agents of all kinds (e.g. translations for women, commissioning of translations by women) in the production and circulation of translations.In the last few decades an expanding corpus of scholarly works and research activities have greatly contributed to extending our knowledge of women’s roles in the history and cultures of translation, especially with reference to England, France, and Germany, whereas in the Italian tradition, the topic has so far not received the scholarly attention it deserves.
This conference aims to offer a contribution to the cultural history of translation in Italy, also taking into consideration the complex and varied linguistic situation of the peninsula. Translation has at times been deemed a compromise between women’s artistic aspirations and the perils of authorship of imaginative literature, a way for women to leave their mark in an otherwise hostile literary environment. In fact, research on the topic has shown that this understanding of the role of translation for women is limiting. Translating has encompassed both a private and public element: some women took up translation as a literary pastime, whereas others have depended on the income they received from it to make a living. Other women have engaged in translation alongside their own creative writing, interacting and collaborating in cultivated circles with eminent figures from the republic of letters, and others still have seen translation as a means of expressing their scholarship and erudition, or expressing their political engagement and ideological convictions. Some women translators, whether in domestic contexts or in convents, in salons or at court, made texts available for the benefit of readers less familiar with other languages. Historically, women have translated from (and into) classical languages, as well as from one modern language into another, or from one dialect into another.
Crossing linguistic and cultural boundaries, women have translated a variety of genres, from poetry, novels, and plays, to history, biography, conduct literature, economic and legal texts, religious and devotional writings, scientific and philosophical works.
Questions to be considered when submitting proposals, include, but are not limited to:
– women’s access to the study of classical and foreign languages; the metalinguistic tools and resources available to assist translators in their task, as well as practices of language learning; women translators and their access to and use of the Italian language, and their contribution to its development by means of translations; the multilingual and multicultural contexts of the Italian peninsula, and therefore the linguistic and cultural contexts in which translations took place and were received; women as patrons, printers, and readers of translations, and their role in the circulation of translations among countries; individual and collaborative translations; the ‘authorship’ of translations (e.g. published anonymously/under initials/full name); women translators’ reflections on translation; translation practices and attitudes; tactics of intercultural negotiations of ideas and meanings, and of adaptation of the original texts; modes of production and distribution of translations; influence and reception of translations for and/or by women; intended audiences and readerships; material aspects of works translated; manuscript and print translations. Contributions that discuss translations of Italian women writers’ works into other languages are also welcome.‘Women, Language(s) and Translation in the Italian Tradition’ is generously supported by the Isaac Newton Trust and by the Italian Section, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, University of Cambridge.
PROPOSALS:
Presentations in English are strongly encouraged. Papers should be 20 minutes in length (+10 minutes of discussion). Proposals should be submitted in a single Word/Pdf document to the organiser Dr Helena Sanson (hls37@cam.ac.uk), and should contain the following information:
Name, Institutional affiliation (if any), Email, Title of the proposal and abstract (250-300 words), a short CV, with a list of your main publications (no more than 2 pages).
Proposals by postgraduate students and early career researchers are encouraged and particularly welcome.
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