La tesi si occupa di analizzare la produzione narrativa della scrittrice messicana di frontiera Cristina Rivera Garza. In particolare, si pone l'accento sull'uso della strategia dell'intertestualità. A partire dalle fondamentali teorie classiche di Julia Kristeva, Gérard Genette e molti altri, lo scopo è quello di proporre un nuovo modello interpretativo che possa considerare la peculiarità della letteratura ispano-americana e inglobare la particolarità della proposta narrativa della scrittrice in oggetto. Attraverso l'innovativo studio di Roberto González Echevarría, l'obiettivo è quello di analizzare non solo i rapporti che si stabiliscono tra opere che appartengono al sistema della letteratura, ma anche i produttivi rapporti che si stabiliscono fra testi letterari e testi che non appartengono al sistema della letteratura. In particolare si analizza: a) le relazioni tra Storia e narrazione nel romanzo storico messicano tra XX e XXI secolo; b) le relazioni tra cronaca (considerata come genere tout court e come insieme di notizie giornalistiche) e narrazione nel romanzo poliziesco messicano contemporaneo. / In this dissertation I investigate the narrative production of the Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza. In particular I focus on the strategy of intertextuality. Starting from the main classical theories by Julia Kristeva, Gérard Genette and many others, I try to present a new interpretative model of intertextuality by considering its development in Spanish American Literatures. Through the innovative study by Roberto González Echevarría, the aim is to investigate not only the intertextual relationship between works that are part of the literary system, but also to investigate the productive intertextual relationships with fiction and non-fiction narratives. In particular, I focus on: a) the intertextual relationship between History and narration, by investigating the evolution of Mexican historical novel between XX and XXI century; b) the intertextual relationship between chronicle (both as a genre and as a record of events) and narration in Mexican contemporary detective fiction.

La ricerca sulla comunicazione e gestione multilingue della conoscenza in azienda si è sinora concentrata sulle multinazionali o PMI in fase di globalizzazione. La presente ricerca riguarda invece le PMI in zone storicamente multilingui al fine di studiare se l’abitudine all’uso di lingue diverse sul mercato locale possa rappresentare un vantaggio competitivo. La tesi illustra una ricerca multimetodo condotta nel 2012-2013 in Alto Adige/Südtirol. Il dataset consiste in 443 risposte valide a un questionario online e 23 interviste con manager e imprenditori locali. Le domande miravano a capire come le aziende altoatesine affrontino la sfida del multilinguismo, con particolare attenzione ai seguenti ambiti: comunicazione multilingue, documentazione, traduzione e terminologia. I risultati delineano un quadro generale delle strategie di multilinguismo applicate in Alto Adige, sottolineandone punti di forza e punti deboli. Nonostante la presenza di personale multilingue infatti il potenziale vantaggio competitivo che ne deriva non è sfruttato appieno: le aziende si rivolgono ai mercati in cui si parla la loro stessa lingua (le imprese a conduzione italiana al mercato nazionale, quelle di lingua tedesca ad Austria e Germania). La comunicazione interna è multilingue solo nei casi in sia imprescindibile. Le “traduzioni fai-da-te” offrono l’illusione di gestire lingue diverse, ma il livello qualitativo rimane limitato. I testi sono sovente tradotti da personale interno privo di competenze specifiche. Anche nella cooperazione con i traduttori esterni si evidenza la mancata capacità di ottenere il massimo profitto dagli investimenti. La tesi propone delle raccomandazioni pratiche volte a ottimizzare i processi attuali e massimizzare la resa delle risorse disponibili per superare la sfida della gestione e comunicazione multilingue. Le raccomandazioni non richiedono investimenti economici di rilievo e sono facilmente trasferibili anche ad altre regioni multilingui/di confine, come ad altre PMI che impiegano personale plurilingue. Possono dunque risultare utili per un elevato numero di imprese. / Research in multilingual business communication and knowledge management so far has mainly focused on large international companies or on SMEs facing globalisation, while this research centres on SMEs in historically multilingual regions. The aim is to to assess whether the long-term habit of communicating in more than one language on the local market gives these SMEs a competitive advantage. The dissertation bases on a mixed-method study performed in 2012-2013 in Italian-German bilingual South Tyrol (Alto Adige/Südtirol). The dataset consists of 443 valid responses to an online questionnaire and 23 qualitative interviews with local CEOs. Questions aimed at understanding how the South Tyrolean businesses cope with the challenges of multilingualism, focusing particularly on: multilingual communication, documentation, translation and terminology. The results sketch a general picture of multilingual habits in South Tyrol and pinpoint common weaknesses. Notwithstanding the availability of bilingual and multilingual staff, the ensuing potential is not fully exploited: companies tend to address same-language markets (i.e. Italian-speaking companies target the national market while German-speaking companies address neighbouring Austria and Germany). Internal communication is monolingual whenever possible. “DIY in-house translations” offer the illusion of coping with several languages, but quality is poor. Most texts are translated by internal staff with no specific competences. The cooperation with external translators also lacks the necessary insights to optimise the cost-benefit relationship. Based on these results, the dissertation proposes a set of simple and practical recommendations for South Tyrolean companies that build on optimising current workflows and better exploiting existing resources, thus helping to master the challenge of multilingual knowledge management and international communication. Most recommendations do not require financial investments and can easily be transferred to other multilingual (border) regions or to SMEs employing multilingual staff. Therefore, the recommendations can be helpful for a wide range of companies.

La ricerca, che ha per oggetto lo studio dell’apprendimento guidato dell’italiano come lingua seconda da parte di apprendenti lituani, si articola in quattro capitoli. I primi due costituiscono il quadro teorico della ricerca, dedicando il primo ai fondamenti teorici e ricerche empiriche in generale e il secondo alle ricerche sull’apprendimento dell’italiano come L2. Nel terzo capitolo viene presentata la metodologia della ricerca, mentre nel quarto capitolo vengono presentati i risultati, concentrandosi in particolare sull’ortografia, sulla morfologia del nome, sulla categoria del verbo e sugli aspetti sintattici.In base ai risultati conseguiti, che in parte confermano i percorsi acquisizionali rilevati in contesto di apprendimento spontaneo, vengono all’ultimo suggerite alcune proposte applicative. / The research, focused on instructed Italian second language acquisition by Lithuanian learners, is divided in four chapters. The first chapter is dedicated to the theoretical foundations of the discipline and the second to the research on Italian acquisition as second language. The third chapter is concerned with methodological issues whereas in the forth chapter the results of the research are presented by focusing particularly on the orthography, noun morphology, verb category and syntactic aspects. On the bases of the results, which partially correspond to the acquisitional sequences obtained in naturalistic acquisition context, some pedagogical implications are suggested.

A partir da sua conceituação inevitavelmente relacional que a opõe ao centro, o estudo que aqui se apresenta pretende investigar as modalidades da representação da periferia na literatura brasileira contemporânea, tendo em vista ao mesmo tempo a sua projeção no mercado editorial nacional e internacional. O trabalho enfoca, em particular, a obra de quatro autores brasileiros contemporâneos (Rodrigo Ciríaco, Marcelino Freire, Ana Paula Maia e Patrícia Melo) que, pelos seus percursos pessoais e criativos, podem ser colocados em pontos diferentes de um continuum entro o polo “centro” e o polo “periferia”, ora mais próximo de um, ora de outro, mas sempre pressuppondo ambos os termos, tidos como mutuamente implicados nas várias configurações identitárias de cada autor, fora de qualquer lógica dicotómica. O percurso começa pela literatura periférica enquanto terminus a quo, não só do ponto de vista cronológico, de toda abordagem histórico-cultural do tema, chegando depois a acompanhar a progressiva reestruturação (ou desestruturação?) desse relacionamento osmótico entre a escrita e o lugar, conforme acontece, por exemplo, em uma autora como Patrícia Melo, em que a periferia não passa de um simples pano de fundo, desvencilhado de qualquer função conhecedora. Por fim, no último capítulo, a análise debruça-se sobre a presença de autores brasileiros, e em particular de representantes do movimento da literatura periférica, no mercado editorial mundial, por meio da tradução e da participação de eventos culturais internacionais como a Feira do Livro de Frankfurt e o Salão do Livro de Paris. / Starting from the concepts of the centre and the periphery, this thesis analyses their representation in Brazilian contemporary literature and their relationship in the Brazilian and international publishing market. Focusing on four Brazilian contemporary writers with different personal and creative paths – Rodrigo Ciríaco, Marcelino Freire, Ana Paula Maia e Patrícia Melo – this research aims to demonstrate that they can be placed on an imaginary line, which develops through multiple gradations. Therefore, this continuum is opposed to a binary opposition’s point of view. From this perspective, the emergence of a new literary movement from the suburbs of Brazilian big cities, the literatura periférica, is analyzed in order to try to understand how it is different, or not, from other literary discourses. Finally, the thesis observes the presence of Brazilian writers, especially exponents of literatura periférica, in the international publishing market, through their translation and participation in major international cultural events such as Frankfurt Book Fair and Paris Book Fair.

Lo studio in oggetto è volto a reperire una metodologia di ricerca sui proverbi, basata su corpora linguistici e guidata dall’approccio corpus-driven. Il primo capitolo si concentra sull’analisi linguistica del proverbio, cercando di evidenziarne le principali caratteristiche e problematiche. Anzitutto, il proverbio è una frase e non un costituente come può essere l’espressione idiomatica. In secondo luogo, la sua semantica funziona su tre piani distinti: il proverbio, infatti, ha un significato composizionale, ma anche un significato paremiologico e, quando viene enunciato, veicola un messaggio. Nel secondo capitolo, dopo aver preso in esame il rapporto tra linguistica dei corpora e paremiologia, abbiamo cercato di reperire una metodologia di ricerca automatica di proverbi in grandi corpora linguistici come itWaC e frWaC, i due corpora utilizzati nell’ambito della presente ricerca. Prendendo spunto da altri studi in ambito fraseologico, abbiamo capito l’importanza di effettuare concordanze di marcatori di proverbio per ottenere proverbi. I marcatori di proverbio utilizzati sono stati la parola proverbio per l’italiano e la parola proverbe per il francese. Nel terzo e nel quarto capitolo, abbiamo illustrato dettagliatamente le tappe della nostra ricerca. L’analisi ha mostrato il vero funzionamento dei proverbi in contesto e ha evidenziato comportamenti molto interessanti, come la modifica e la creazione del proverbio. Nel complesso, lo studio mostra chiaramente che i proverbi sono ancora utilizzati e perfino creati, ecco perché la ricerca non può fermarsi. Inoltre, l’analisi dei dati reali può fare giungere a risultati non solo più precisi, ma anche innovativi. / This research aims at giving some methodological guidance for the study of proverbs through corpora. In the first chapter, the analysis of the linguistics of proverbs highlights their main characteristics. Firstly, they are sentences – not phrases; secondly, their semantics concerns three different levels, since they have a compositional meaning, a paremiological meaning and, when uttered, they convey a message. In chapter two, after highlighting the relationship between corpus linguistics and pariemology, I have searched for a methodology to automatically find proverbs in very big corpora, such as itWaC and frWaC, the two corpora used in this research. Drawing on studies from other fields, such as phraseology, I have realised that proverbs can be found through the concordance of their marker. In this research, these markers of proverbs are the words proverbio, for Italian proverbs, and proverbe, for French proverbs. Chapters three and four practically illustrate how our research has been carried out. The analysis has focused on identifying the main features characterizing our proverbs and their functioning in real contexts. In particular, great importance has been attached to variation and creativity in proverbs, proving that we are still modifying and inventing proverbs. This study clearly shows that proverbs are still in use, on the one hand, and that research on proverbs needs further and more thorough investigation, on the other. However, in order to obtain even more satisfying results, proverbs must be investigated using real data.

El objetivo de la presente investigación, el catálogo y estudio de las gramáticas de italiano destinadas a hispanohablantes de los siglos XVIII y XIX, se encuadra en el macrosector gramaticográfico de la historiografía lingüística, en el cual el estudio de las gramáticas de las lenguas dirigidas a hablantes nativos y a hablantes extranjeros, con los consiguientes cruces y trasvases de tradiciones gramaticales, es de significativo interés como destacan: (i) las tesis doctorales defendidas en los últimos quince años; (ii) los proyectos de investigación dirigidos y coordinados por prestigiosos estudiosos del sector; (iii) los congresos organizados para destacar y compartir las principales actualizaciones en torno a los estudios gramaticográficos; y (iv) las publicaciones que surgen de los tres puntos anteriores. El estudio presenta dos partes centrales: la primera (constituida por los capítulos 2 y 3) es la de catálogo y estudio de las diecinueve gramáticas que conforman el corpus en base a ocho áreas descriptivas (1. información catalográfica, 2. autor, 3. editor, 4. hiperestructura, 5. elementos peritextuales, gramaticales y didácticos, 6. variedad de textos y su secuencia didáctica, 7. caracterización, fuentes e influencias, y 8. localización); la segunda (capítulo 4) es la de estudio gramaticográfico de conjunto de los datos más relevantes de las areas de estudio utilizadas en las dos primeras partes. De este modo, daremos un panorama de conjunto sobre (i) la cronología de las obras y sus ediciones y rempresiones; (ii) la nacionalidad, profesión, condición religiosa, etc. de autores; (iii) la geografía de ediciones y editores; (iv) la descripción hiperestructural de las obras; (v) la estructura de los elementos peritextuales; (vi) las partes gramaticales y elementos que las componen; (vii) el verbo: definiciones y paradigma verbal; (vii) los elementos didácticos; (viii) las líneas de descripción gramatical; (ix) la localización de las gramáticas en las bibliotecas españolas. / This research, the catalogue and study of grammar books of Italian for Spanish speakers of the 18th and 19th century, fids it place within the field of the grammaticography in linguistic historiography, where the analysis of grammar books for native and non-native speakers, with its consequent intersections and transfers of grammar traditions, is of great interest. This can be inferred from: (i) the PhD dissertations written in the past fifteen years; (ii) the research projects directed and coordinated by prestigious scholars in the field; (iii) the conferences organised to highlight and share the latest research in grammaticography and (iv) the literature published as a consequence of the three previous points. This work can be divided into two main parts: the first (chapters 2 and 3) is the catalogue and study of the nineteen grammars in the corpus, based on eight areas of description (1. catalogue information, 2. author, 3. publisher, 4. hyperstructure, 5. peritextual, grammatical and didactic elements, 6. variety of texts and their didactic sequence, 7. characterization, sources and influences and 8. location); the second (chapter 4) is the overall grammaticographic study of the most significant data of the fields of analysis used in the first two chapters. In conclusion, this work provides a general overview on (i) the chronology of these works and their editions and reprints; (ii) the nationality, profession, religious condition, etc. of the authors; (iii) the geography of editions and publishers; (iv) the hyperstructural descriptions of the works; (v) the structure of peritextual elements; (vi) the grammatical parts and the elements that compose them; (vii) the verb: definitions and paradigm; (vii) didactic elements; (viii) the lines of grammatical description; (ix) the location of the grammars analysed in Spanish libraries.

This thesis is a re-evaluation of Lin Shu (1852-1924) and his literary translations. Lin Shu is one of China’s most influential translators. He initiated modern literary translation in China, and his translations imported new ideas, literary concepts, styles and techniques from the West. These, in turn, influenced the emergence and development of modern Chinese literature. Nevertheless, Lin Shu and his translations have been belittled and even dismissed for various reasons over the years. The emergence and development of target/culture-oriented translation theories offer the possibility of re-assessing Lin Shu and his translations. The re-assessment of Lin Shu and his translations in this study is based on target/culture-oriented translation theories, which emerged in the 1970s. Target/culture-oriented translation theories focus on the mutual influence between a translation and its target culture, especially on the influence of a translation on the target culture and readers as a criterion for successful translation rather than examining whether the target text is faithful to the source text, as in the traditional linguistic approach. These target/culture-oriented theories can effectively explain the translational phenomenon of Lin Shu, as Lin Shu translated with the needs of the target culture and readers in mind. He attached great importance to the cultural function and influence of his translations during a period of historical transition in China. The criticisms of Lin Shu and his translations in China and elsewhere have largely been negative, often highlighting political issues - his endorsement of the constitutional Qing monarchy and his conservative attitude to the New Culture Movement - as well as his free translation method. Target/culture-oriented translation theories offer a framework for the re-assessment of Lin Shu and his translations that bypasses these narrow approaches. Adopting target/culture-oriented translation theories, this thesis examines Lin Shu’s translations in a trans-cultural context. Lin Shu based his translations on the needs for the Chinese culture and readers of that time, which was clearly embodied in his choice of, and response to, the originals works. The prefaces and postscripts that he wrote for his translations illustrate the new cultural and literary factors that Lin Shu introduced into China. In this respect, Lin Shu’s translation of La Dame aux Camelia is perhaps the most famous case study of his translation method. Through a comparative analysis of the Target Text (TT) and Source Text (ST), the thesis discusses the ‘truthfulness’ of Lin Shu’s translation, and stresses that ‘truthfulness’ lies in seeking poetic equivalence rather than formal equivalence between the target and source texts. We argue that poetic equivalence is similar to Nida’s principle of correspondence, but is beyond his dynamic equivalence. It lays special stress on literary or aesthetic equivalence. Poetic equivalence in Lin Shu’s translations relates to the stylistic expression in China’s literary language and is therefore intrinsic to sinicization. Lin Shu’s skill in classical Chinese is central to our notion of poetic equivalence. However, I argue that Lin Shu’s translation strategy is actually also beyond equivalence. It is primarily embodied in his constant adaptation of the original to the perceived needs of Chinese culture and the acceptability of his translations to Chinese readers. Adaptation includes omission, addition, alteration and abridgment. In terms of target/culture/reader-oriented translation theories, Lin Shu’s adaptations were acceptable in the cultural context of his time. In brief, this study clarifies Lin Shu’s contribution in introducing Western culture and literature into China. The study also stresses the cultural influence of Lin’s translations on modern Chinese culture and on later generation of Chinese writers and translators. This thesis concludes that Lin Shu played a role of utmost importance in the establishment and evolution of early-modern and modern Chinese translation, particularly of modern literary translation in China. Therefore, Lin Shu is the father of modern Chinese literary translation.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.

Quando si parla di traduzione, si pensa spesso solo al risultato di un processo, valutato e analizzato come tale. Sembra ci si dimentichi del fatto che, prima di arrivare a quel risultato finale, il traduttore applica più o meno consapevolmente tutta quella serie di strumenti di analisi, critica, correzione, rilettura, riformulazione e modifica che rientrano nell’attività di revisione. A questa prima fase, di cui ogni traduttore fa esperienza nel lavorare alla propria traduzione, segue di norma una fase successiva in cui la traduzione è rivista da un’altra figura professionale della filiera editoriale (di solito, e auspicabilmente, un altro traduttore) e infine altre fasi ancora del processo di lavorazione e pubblicazione del testo tradotto. Oltre a essere un’attività cruciale di ogni attività di traduzione e processo editoriale, la revisione riveste anche un fondamentale ruolo didattico nella formazione dei traduttori. L’idea alla base di questo progetto di ricerca nasce dal bisogno di triangolare riflessioni e dati concreti sulla revisione provenienti dalla ricerca accademica, dalla pratica professionale e dall’esperienza didattico-formativa, in un triplice approccio che informa l’intero progetto, di cui si illustrano i principali obiettivi: • formulare una nuova e chiara definizione sommativa del termine “revisione” da potersi utilizzare nell’ambito della ricerca, della didattica e della prassi professionale; • fornire una panoramica tematica, critica e aggiornata sulla ricerca accademica e non-accademica in materia di revisione; • condurre un’indagine conoscitiva (tramite compilazione di questionari diversificati) sulla pratica professionale della revisione editoriale in Italia, allo scopo di raccogliere dati da traduttori e revisori, fornirne una lettura critica e quindi individuare peculiarità e criticità di questa fase del processo di lavorazione del libro tradotto; • presentare ipotesi di lavoro e suggerimenti su metodi e strumenti da applicare all’insegnamento della revisione in contesti didattici e formativi. / When speaking of translation, we often think of it as the end result of a process and we analyze and evaluate it as such. However we seem to forget that, before that final result is arrived at, the translator applies, more or less deliberately, all those tools of analysis, criticism, correction, re-reading, re-formulation and alteration that revision consists of. This first stage – which each translator goes through when working on his/her own translation (self-revision) – is usually followed by a second stage where the translation is revised by another professional figure in the publishing field (usually, and desirably, also a translator) and then by further stages of translation processing and publishing. As well as being a crucial stage of any translation work and publishing process, revision plays a fundamental didactic role in translator training. The idea behind this project arises from the need to triangulate insights and data on revision drawing from scholarly research, professional practice and training experience, and this three-pronged approach informs the whole project. In particular, the project aims at achieving the following four main objectives: • to formulate a new, straightforward and exhaustive definition of the term “revision” to be used in research and training contexts as well as in the professional world; • to provide a thematic, critical, and state-of-the-art overview of scholarly and non-scholarly research on revision; • to conduct a survey (by means of on-line, retrospective questionnaires) on all aspects of professional revision practice in Italy, aimed at collecting data from both translators and revisers, and therefore outlining specific and critical aspects of this stage of the publishing process; • to provide hints and suggestions on methods and tools to be applied to the teaching of revision both in didactic and training contexts.

The present dissertation aims at analyzing the construction of American adolescent culture through teen-targeted television series and the shift in perception that occurs as a consequence of the translation process. In light of the recent changes in television production and consumption modes, largely caused by new technologies, this project explores the evolution of Italian audiences, focusing on fansubbing (freely distributed amateur subtitles made by fans for fan consumption) and social viewing (the re-aggregation of television consumption based on social networks and dedicated platforms, rather than on physical presence). These phenomena are symptoms of a sort of ‘viewership 2.0’ and of a new type of active viewing, which calls for a revision of traditional AVT strategies. Using a framework that combines television studies, new media studies, and fandom studies with an approach to AVT based on Descriptive Translation Studies (Toury 1995), this dissertation analyzes the non-Anglophone audience’s growing need to participation in the global dialogue and appropriation process based on US scheduling and informed by the new paradigm of convergence culture, transmedia storytelling, and affective economics (Jenkins 2006 and 2007), as well as the constraints intrinsic to multimodal translation and the different types of linguistic and cultural adaptation performed through dubbing (which tends to be more domesticating; Venuti 1995) and fansubbing (typically more foreignizing). The study analyzes a selection of episodes from six of the most popular teen television series between 1990 and 2013, which has been divided into three ages based on the different modes of television consumption: top-down, pre-Internet consumption (Beverly Hills, 90210, 1990 – 2000), emergence of audience participation (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1997 – 2003; Dawson’s Creek, 1998 – 2003), age of convergence and Viewership 2.0 (Gossip Girl, 2007 – 2012; Glee, 2009 – present; The Big Bang Theory, 2007 - present).