Agenda

12 Jun 2025 15:30

Refractions of Postcolonial Identity in Translation

Sala B - Ca' Bernardo e online

Refractions of Postcolonial Identity in Translation: Ubah Cristina Ali Farah’s Somali-Italian Style in English and French

This presentation will show how the digital tool Voyant can be used to critically compare an ST in Italian with its English and French TTs, exhibiting the useful intersection of Digital Humanities and Translation Studies. The focus will be on postcolonial translation and its role in providing visibility to marginalized writers working between languages and cultures within dominant contexts. As an example, Somali-Italian author Ubah Cristina Ali Farah’s Madre Piccola (2007) will be examined, as it is considered one of the representative works of Italian postcolonial literature and is one of the few that have been translated into English (2011) and French (2023).
Ali Farah’s prose includes linguistic elements and postcolonial themes that can be challenging for translators, such as an informal style, socially charged terms describing bicultural and biracial identity, and many instances of multilingualism. While introducing her work to readers beyond Italy, these translations also increase the consciousness of Italy’s colonial and postcolonial histories.
The presentation will provide an overview of a recent study, conducted with the goal of demonstrating how digital tools can be used in Translation Studies to fine-tune the comparison of ST and TT while at the same time amplifying the discourse on postcolonial translation. Using Voyant Tools, the Italian ST Madre Piccola is compared with its English and French translations. The features of word frequency, contextual terms, and collocations allow for an assessment of how the translators approached the text, particularly to determine if the multilingual elements and postcolonial themes are preserved or altered.
The key elements investigated are whether the translators followed a foreignizing approach, how contentious words were handled, and whether the multilingualism within the narrative was preserved. Through this analysis, the presentation aims to highlight the unique contributions of Italian postcolonial literature to global postcolonial studies, the importance of translating postcolonial works, and the utility of new digital tools of textual analysis.

Link Zoom
https://unive.zoom. us/j/81813968890?pwd=14qz1B- 6SbbGx2xvKOdmacVUSF6fEMq.1

Keynote speaker
Alessandra Balzani

Scientific responsible for the organisation of the event
Mirella Agorni

Event open to PhD students, researchers, students and all interested parties.

Language

The event will be held in English

Organized by

Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Culturali Comparati

Downloads

Locandina 417 KB

Search in the agenda