The American reception of Italian poetry after WWII

ABSTRACT

Contemporary Italian poetry began to spread in the U.S. after World War II, appearing in literary magazines and anthologies along with neorealist films and novels. The reception of this genre requires an analysis of the mechanisms and factors that make books and authors relevant in different markets. An author’s success and the visibility of books are not measured only by sales, especially for poetry in translation. Publishers consider the prestige such works can bring to their catalog, even though they often involve a long-term investment and possible economic loss. Italian poetry has been crucial for many professional translators-in-training, representing their first encounter with Italian literature. Poetry translation is a complex challenge that requires negotiation between the translator’s creative freedom and attention to form and meaning. William Weaver is an example of a translator who sought an original voice through his approach to Italian literature. Robert Lowell explored the potential of “Imitations” in his work. The reception of Italian poetry in the U.S. has been influenced by important intermediaries such as Renato Poggioli, professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard, and Marguerite Caetani with the magazine “Botteghe Oscure.” Italian poets who debuted on the American scene and translators who made their works accessible to the public were identified. Modes of publication and indicators of legitimacy were considered, such as educational publications and integration into U.S. academic courses, but also critical reflections on Italian poetry that have been published in the American press and introductions and apparatuses found in translated works. Poetry is considered a legitimizing genre in the national and international literary scene, and some Italian poets have been consistently translated by English and American writers. Montale is a particular case study, as his works have been repeatedly retranslated by various poets and intellectuals, representing a laboratory of constant renegotiation of poetic form and meaning.

RIASSUNTO

La poesia italiana contemporanea ha iniziato a diffondersi negli Stati Uniti nel secondo dopoguerra, apparendo in riviste letterarie e antologie insieme a film e romanzi neorealisti. La ricezione di questo genere richiede un’analisi dei meccanismi e dei fattori che rendono i libri e gli autori rilevanti nei diversi mercati. Il successo di un autore e la visibilità dei libri non si misurano solo in base alle vendite, soprattutto per la poesia in traduzione. Gli editori considerano il prestigio che queste opere possono portare al loro catalogo, anche se spesso comportano un investimento a lungo termine e una possibile perdita economica. La poesia italiana è stata fondamentale per molti traduttori professionisti in formazione, rappresentando il loro primo incontro con la letteratura italiana. La traduzione di poesia è una sfida particolarmente complessa che richiede una negoziazione tra la libertà creativa del traduttore e l’attenzione alla forma e al significato. William Weaver è un esempio di traduttore che ha cercato una voce originale attraverso il suo approccio alla letteratura italiana. Robert Lowell ha esplorato il potenziale delle “imitazioni” nella sua opera. La ricezione della poesia italiana negli Stati Uniti è stata influenzata da importanti intermediari come Renato Poggioli, professore di Letteratura comparata ad Harvard, e Marguerite Caetani con la rivista “Botteghe Oscure”. Sono stati individuati i poeti italiani che hanno debuttato sulla scena americana e i traduttori che hanno reso le loro opere accessibili al pubblico. Sono state considerate le modalità di pubblicazione e gli indicatori di legittimazione, come le pubblicazioni didattiche e l’integrazione nei corsi accademici statunitensi, ma anche le riflessioni critiche sulla poesia italiana pubblicate dalla stampa americana e le introduzioni e gli apparati presenti nelle opere tradotte. La poesia è considerata un genere legittimante nel panorama letterario nazionale e internazionale, e alcuni poeti italiani sono stati costantemente tradotti da scrittori inglesi e americani. Montale è un caso particolare, in quanto le sue opere sono state ripetutamente ritradotte da vari poeti e intellettuali, rappresentando un laboratorio di costante rinegoziazione della forma poetica e del significato.

KEYWORDS:

• Reception of Italian literature
• translations of Italian poetry
• history of publishing
• translation studies
• translational circulation of ideas

PAROLE CHIAVE:

• Ricezione della letteratura Italiana
• Traduzione della poesia italiana
• Storia dell'editoria
• scienza della traduzione
• circolazione transnazionale delle idee

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. In his works on the French and the transnational literary fields, sociologist Pierre Bourdieu explains how cultural transfers are oriented by agonistic forces of different institutions and individuals that fight to achieve symbolic recognition and supremacy. These forces determine a range of possibilities for every author in the field and impact all aspects of literary production, from themes to genres, to the conditions to access public recognition. (Cf: Bourdieu 1977, décembre 2002, 1971, 1992. On the theory of literary genres: Sapiro, 2014; Albenga, 2011, Casanova 1999, 2002, 2016; Even-Zohar 1990).

^2. Healey bibliography lists English-language translations of twentieth-century Italian literature published form between 1929 and 1997; it continues the work done in 1931 by Nancy Shields, which lists almost all translations up to 1929 (Shields 1931). The WorldCat description of Healey’s book reports 2,500 listings of the editions of some 1,400 works that encompass fiction, poetry, plays, screenplays, librettos, journals and diaries, correspondence, and some personal narratives, belles-lettres and associated works.

^3. Inventario was a quarterly journal directed by Luigi Berti from 1946 to 1964 that published many international and especially Anglo-Saxon authors. Along with Vladimir Nabokov, Hermann Melville, Henry Miller, Boris Pasternak, and Pablo Neruda, Berti published many Italian writers: Ungaretti, Montale, Luzi, Calvino, Prisco, Rea, Del Buono, Luti, Solmi, Saviano. He also extensively translated American writers and among them Herman Melville, T.S. Eliot and Robert Penn Warren, and the British writers Dylan Thomas and W. M. Thackeray.

^4. With a few important exceptions: Georges Bataille, “La Lettre à René Char sur les Incompatibilités de l’écrivain”, published in issue VI (1950), positions the review away from Sartre and the littérature éngagée (and Sartre’s journal Les Temps Modernes. This text of Bataille also distances the journal from the idea of literature as art pour l’art: literature has a superior power and complexity (cf: Risset 2007).

^5. Harry Thomas, in the introduction of his book Montale in English (Montale and Thomas 2002), traces the highlights of the reception of Montale’s work in English. He also brings together around 100 of Montale’s poems in translation and describes the force of the poet’s presence in English. The book collects the work of fifty-six translators but could have included dozens more.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Dartmouth College.

Notes on contributors

Giorgio Alberti

Giorgio Alberti is a Senior Lecturer in Italian at Dartmouth College’s Department of French and Italian. In 2015, he served as the Lauro de Bosis Fellow at Harvard University. His primary research focus lies in the examination of the mechanisms behind the reception and legitimization of post-World War II Italian Literature within the U.S. He specifically delves into the roles played by key translators, publishers, literary critics, academics, and opinion makers in shaping this reception.