A writer by passion and a psychiatric nurse by profession, Gisèle Pineau is described as the new feminine voice of the literature from the French Antilles (Martinique and Guadeloupe). In all her novels, she explores the human condition and more specifically that of women. Breaking the silence that oppresses Antillean women, Gisèle Pineau delves into the destinies of women from Guadeloupe, scrutinizing the environment of her island and elsewhere, reinventing the French language, and giving voice and identity to all those women who have never had the possibility to express themselves. After having introduced the author in a postcolonial context linked with the theory of the feminine writing and its expressions in Caribbean literature, the plight of women is described through the experience of their bodies in Antillean society and elsewhere. The author focuses on physical and psychological violence denouncing the treatment of women. Escaping from oppression, women look for the space to rebuild a new life and a new identity.

From 1986 to 1994, Patrick Chamoiseau and Raphaël Confiant published a series of fictional and non-fictional writings focusing on language issues. Interest in these themes can certainly in part be explained by the "surconscience linguistique" that Lise Gauvin attributes to Francophone authors: a linguistic over-awareness which, in the case of these two Martiniquais writers, may be attributed to their Creole-French diglossia. Although we might believe that the idea of Gauvin is right, it doesn't seem enough to explain why the linguistic theme plays such a central role in Chamoiseau's and Confiant's works. Deeply influenced by Glissant's theories on Creole popular culture and Antillean literature (Le discours antillais), they conceived a "Créolité" poetics based on a primarly identity-based and geopolitical discourse. Declaring the need to build an authentically Creole literary discourse, one that finally expresses the Martiniquais reality, Chamoiseau and Confiant (as well as Bernabé, third and last author of Éloge de la créolité) found the «foundations of [their] being» in orality and its poetics in the Creole language. This belief was maily translated into their works in two ways: by representing the (diglossic) relationships occurring between their first languages (Creole and French) and by representing the Creole parole (orality) and its function. An analysis of our authors' literary and theoretical writings will enable us to show how two works that develop around the same themes and thesis have in fact produced very divergent results, which were perhaps already perceivable in the main ambiguities of their common manifestos. / Presque contemporains les uns des autres, les premiers récits en français (1986-1994) de Patrick Chamoiseau et de Raphaël Confiant manifestent un vif intérêt pour les questions des langues qu'ils placent au sein de leurs pratiques littéraires. Si la centralité du thème linguistique peut s'expliquer en partie par cette «surconscience linguistique» que Lise Gauvin répère chez tout écrivain francophone – et qui relèverait de la diglossie martiniquaise (créole-français) dans le cas de nos deux écrivains –, elle prend un tout autre essor chez Chamoiseau et Confiant. Fortement influencés par les théories glissantiennes sur la culture populaire créole et la littérature antillaise à fonder (Le discours antillais), ces romanciers martiniquais conçoivent une poétique de la Créolité qui se greffe sur un discours premièrement identitaire et géopolitique. Ayant déclaré la nécessité de bâtir un discours littéraire authentiquement créole, un discours qui enfin sache dire le réel martiniquais, Chamoiseau et Confiant (ainsi que Bernabé, troisième signataire du manifeste de l'Éloge de la créolité) repèrent dans l'oralité (créole) l'expression du «fondement de [leur] être» et dans la langue créole la poétique de ce fondement. Une conviction qu'ils traduisent dans leurs récits en français de plusieurs manières. Cette thèse examine d'une part la mise en scène des rapports (diglossiques) entre leurs langues premières (créole et français) et, d'autre part, la mise en scène de la «parole» (l'oralité) créole et de son fonctionnement. L'analyse des textes littéraires et des discours théoriques des auteurs nous permettra de montrer comment deux œuvres développant les mêmes thèmes et s'appuyant sur les mêmes discours produisent des résultats très divergents qui sont peut-être déjà lisibles dans les ambiguïtés premières de leurs textes manifestaires communs.

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Translations, says Gideon Toury, are facts of target cultures – but the perceived status of source texts has a bearing on how these are reflected or refracted in the target language. This proposition is particularly evident in the case of classics: when translators have to work on literary creations occupying a pivotal position in the source/target cultures, they adopt strategies of literalness and ennoblement which betray a quasi-religious awe – on the one hand, a desire to ruffle the surface of the revered original as little as possible; and on the other, a determination to reproduce the supposed “classical qualities” of the classic even when they are not present in the source. In this dissertation, Paola Venturi studies how the “idea of classic” influences translation theory and practice, and substantiates her theoretical observations by looking at Italian translations of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English classics. A marked – and historically determined – disparity between source and target readerships, and the translators’ reverence for their prestigious originals, conspire to produce Italian versions which are much more “wooden” and “elegant” than their English counterparts.

In ogni capitolo, l’atto del ricordare viene indagato nelle diverse valenze che lo mettono in rapporto diretto con la nostalgia e l’oblio. L’analisi dei testi letterari copre un arco di tempo di quasi un secolo, partendo dalle innovazioni tecnico-stilistiche realizzate da Katherine Mansfield fino all’eccezionale ricchezza e al meritato successo di pubblico e critica della scrittrice canadese Alice Munro. La bibliografia dei testi primari e secondari è strutturata con criteri tematici e cronologici. / This thesis matches theoretical issues about short story writing and memory studies. After the introductory part, it is organized in three different chapters. In the first chapter, I survey critical perspectives on the history and the evolution of short story writing, supporting my analysis with some examples from Katherine Mansfield’s stories, as a “modernist” keystone of the genre, who marks the passage from nineteenth-century tales to contemporary short stories. Then, I sketch a second step in the evolution of the short story by women writers, according to the examples of Flannery O’Connor. Finally, I link issues in the Afro-American stories by Alice Walker to some trends in postcolonial short story writing by women. In the following two chapters, I analyse the best stories by Anita Desai and Alice Munro, according to their views on recollecting, forgetting and nostalgia. My conclusions summarize thematic and theoretical perspectives and links them to the technical evolution of the genre. The bibliography of primary and secondary sources is organized on the basis of the different areas of studies I have dealt with.

La presente tesi si concentra sul romanzo popolare irlandese scritto da donne, nel periodo compreso tra il 1798 e il 1921. Quattro sono le autrici prese in considerazione: Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, Sydney Owenson (meglio conosciuta come Lady Morgan), Edith Somerville e Katharine Tynan, le cui vite e opere coprono un periodo storico fondamentale per l’uscita dell’Irlanda dal dominio coloniale britannico e la formazione della nazione irlandese nel sud del paese. L’interesse principale è quello di analizzare il modo in cui nei loro testi prende forma la nazione, e in particolare attraverso quali immagini e riferimenti religiosi. Il senso è quello, dunque, di rileggere tali testi prestando maggiore attenzione alla religione, uno dei principali collanti tra autrici e pubblico: all’epoca in cui l’Irlanda stava acquisendo i confini che oggi ancora mantiene, esisteva un terreno d’incontro tra discorso politico e letterario, quello della nazione, e tale terreno veniva attraversato anche dal messaggio religioso. Il fine ultimo è quello di dimostrare che la letteratura popolare non è “seconda” ad altre quanto a valori che è in grado di trasmettere e a messaggi che è in grado di veicolare: trascurarla significa non capire i meccanismi attraverso i quali una società si sviluppa e si modifica. / This research is focused on the Irish popular novel written by women between 1798 and 1921, respectively the year of the Irish Rebellion and that of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, recognizing the Irish Free State as a co-equal dominion of the British Empire. The authors analysed are Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, Sydney Owenson (better known as Lady Morgan), Edith Somerville and Katharine Tynan, whose lives and works cover a fundamental period in Irish history, inaugurating the withdrawal of Britain from Ireland after eight hundred years, and the formation of an Independent Ireland in the south of the country. The main interest has been in analyzing the way these four writers write the nation, and through which religious images and references. The attempt is to reread their novels paying particular attention to religion, one of the main tie between author and readers: at the time when Ireland was acquiring the borders today still possess, there existed a common field, that of nation, on which convened politics, literature and religion. The aim is to show that popular literature is not secondary to any other narrative for the values and messages it conveys: to ignore it would mean to pay no heed to the devices through which society develops and changes.

L’oggetto dell’analisi si situa all’intersezione di diversi ambiti disciplinari: letteratura, scienze dell’educazione, sociologia, psicologia. Nel presente lavoro, viene privilegiata un’analisi tematica della narrativa e la definizione identitaria delle “infanzie migranti” viene declinata seguendo percorsi di lettura che mettano in risalto alcune prospettive ricorrenti nei romanzi. Il corpus letterario selezionato include alcuni romanzi scritti in lingua inglese da sei scrittrici di origine indiana, in particolare Jamila Gavin, Rachna Gilmore, Anjali Banerjee, Rukhsana Khan, Ravinder Randhawa e Meera Syal. Nel primo capitolo si tracciano le premesse teoriche e metodologiche del lavoro, definendo il genere della letteratura per l’infanzia e interrogandoci sulle sue specificità in un contesto postcoloniale qual è quello indiano. Il secondo capitolo è dedicato alla definizione identitaria delle seconde generazioni, in particolar modo di quelle indo-britanniche e indo-canadesi, cui appartengono i protagonisti dei romanzi presi in esame. Nel terzo capitolo viene posta attenzione agli elementi che concorrono alla definizione identitaria dei giovani protagonisti dei romanzi, i quali si interrogano sul loro essere e sull’appartenenza interculturale. I dialoghi intergenerazionali tra i protagonisti e i nonni - o altre figure di guida - permettono alle scrittrici di raccontare la storia dell’India coloniale e della lotta per l’indipendenza dal punto di vista degli esclusi dalla storiografia ufficiale. Nel capitolo conclusivo si argomenta invece come la definizione identitaria si attui per mezzo dello spazio, tramite l’appartenenza ai luoghi, spazi caricati di significato, e per mezzo del viaggio, che può essere reale, immaginario o iniziatico. In tutti i casi, il viaggio porta alla scoperta del Sé, di un’identità ibrida e molteplice da parte dei personaggi. / The object of the work is at the intersection of different disciplines: literature, education, sociology and psychology. The thesis includes a thematic analysis of some novels written in English language by six women writers of Indian origin, in particular, Jamila Gavin, Rachna Gilmore, Anjali Banerjee, Rukhsana Khan, Ravinder Randhawa and Meera Syal. The first chapter traces the theoretical premises and the methodological framework, defining the genre of children's literature and questioning about its specificity in a postcolonial context. The second chapter is dedicated to the second generation identity issue, in particular on the Indo-British and Indo-Canadian identity definition. The third chapter focuses on the intergenerational dialogue between the protagonists and their grandparents, including the standpoint of those excluded from official history. Furthermore, it analyses the perception of diversity and the self-definition of youth through clothing. The final chapter deals with the definition of identity carried through spaces, places and journeys.

This thesis is concerned with the role played by software tools in the analysis and dissemination of linguistic corpora and their contribution to a more widespread adoption of corpora in different fields. Chapter 1 contains an overview of some of the most relevant corpus analysis tools available today, presenting their most interesting features and some of their drawbacks. Chapter 2 begins with an explanation of the reasons why none of the available tools appear to satisfy the requirements of the user community and then continues with technical overview of the current status of the new system developed as part of this work. This presentation is followed by highlights of features that make the system appealing to users and corpus builders (i.e. scholars willing to make their corpora available to the public). The chapter concludes with an indication of future directions for the projects and information on the current availability of the software. Chapter 3 describes the design of an experiment devised to evaluate the usability of the new system in comparison to another corpus tool. Usage of the tool was tested in the context of a documentation task performed on a real assignment during a translation class in a master's degree course. In chapter 4 the findings of the experiment are presented on two levels of analysis: firstly a discussion on how participants interacted with and evaluated the two corpus tools in terms of interface and interaction design, usability and perceived ease of use. Then an analysis follows of how users interacted with corpora to complete the task and what kind of queries they submitted. Finally, some general conclusions are drawn and areas for future work are outlined.