Retying the Bonds: Translation and Reconciliation with the Motherland/Tongue in Italian-Canadian Literature

Abstract

A novel interpretation of the translation practice derives from the growing interest in the phenomenon of migration and the cultural practices originating from it as well as from the realization that such translation performances are inherently connected to those of migration. This article focuses on the literary works born out of migrant contexts, demonstrating how translation is performed in them as an act of negotiation between cultures and languages. From this perspective, migrant literature presents a double and, only partly, metaphorical interpretation of translation. On the one hand, it is translation proper (Jakobson 1959) as interlingual mediation and, on the other, cultural translation (Asad 1986; Bhabha 1994), an intralingual process of cultural reformulation. The above hypothesis is applied to works by Italian-Canadian migrant writers, for whom translation becomes reconciliation with both the motherland and the mother tongue: a means to come to terms with the cultural and linguistic dilemmas originating from their migrant condition.