Translation is formally and pragmatically implicit in every act of communication, in the mission and reception of each and every mode of meaning, be it in the widest semiotic sense or in more specifically verbal exchanges.

GEORGE STEINER

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With these words, Steiner emphasises the essential role that translation plays in every aspect of human life and justifies the fundamental notion at the basis of this volume, where this concept encompasses not only the canonical meanings usually assigned to the term, but also identifies any form of ‘reading’, ‘interpretation’ and ‘re-elaboration’ of both specific texts and reality itself. From this perspective, it is therefore translation that enables human beings to relate to other human beings and the reality they inhabit, implicitly justifying the attention this practice, and its theorisation, have attracted throughout the centuries. A New Paradigm for Translators of Literary and Non-Literary Texts therefore aims to be part of that tradition, in an attempt to identify new tools that might prove useful in the practice of any form of translation.

This book is the result of a personal and professional interest of the author, and it was stimulated by, and expands on, an article published in 2017 in the Italian Journal of Applied Linguistics (RILA – Rivista Italiana di Linguistica Applicata), where an original translation model was presented. The model, which was partially explored in a previously published preliminary study (Canepari, 2020), is here applied to a wide range of case studies, with a view to demonstrating the usefulness it could have at various levels, both in the professional and in the pedagogical field, in order to allow readers to develop effective strategies, functional in the translation of different textual types.

This appears even more accurate and relevant in the third decade of the twenty-first century, when migratory flows are constantly increasing and the world is becoming more and more identified as a multicultural environment.

The volume will therefore discuss and apply the translation model presented in the Introduction – which is based on numerous notions developed in the field of linguistics and translation studies – to a variety of textual typologies (from literary to filmic), providing a systematic and precise support to translation practice.

As suggested by the Contents, the argument developed in its entirety in the volume and the subdivision into chapters inevitably hinges on the tripartition elaborated by Roman Jakobson in the essay ‘Linguistic aspects of translation’ (1959), where the scholar, as is well known, identifies three main types of translation, namely translation proper or interlingual translation (which, from a quantitative perspective, predominates the production of the translation world justifying the space dedicated to this category in this volume);¹ reformulation/re-verbalisation or intralingual translation; and transmutation or intersemiotic translation.

As the topics covered in the volume demonstrate, despite the fact that Jakobson published his article years ago, and despite some criticisms to his work which will be discussed in more detail in the third chapter of this work, the different forms of translation he identifies appear to be extremely valid today and it is in fact on the basis of this subdivision that the present work is organised. Within the three main chapters of the book, the various sections and paragraphs address specific issues, applying the model presented here to specific works taken from literature (novels, plays, poetic texts) as well as popular culture (films, television series, comics, graphic novels).

If this notion of translation loss is such a fundamental element in any kind of translation (be it interlingual, intralingual or intersemiotic), it is clearly because not only, as Jakobson emphasises, different systems necessarily turn complete equivalence into a chimera, but also because the cultural backgrounds underlying the various languages impede a complete correspondence between source and target texts. Furthermore, because all types of languages are social phenomena, the evolution of societies and their cultures inevitably bring about fundamental changes in language and its use, thereby considerably impacting on translation, too.

The model presented in this volume, however, has the purpose of limiting the gap between the source text/language/culture and the target text/language/culture, and by promoting a systematic analysis of the former, aims to create the conditions for the production of effective target texts.

Of course, for reasons of space, the detailed applications of the model are necessarily limited. Yet, the discussions developed in the following chapters will constantly refer to the model, emphasising the different situations in which it might prove useful. On several occasions, in fact, the (often contrastive) analyses carried out in the book bring to the fore the way in which the model might represent an effective tool during the translation process.

Consequently, these analyses can be appreciated both by readers interested in translation for professional purposes and by readers who teach/study translation at various levels of the educational system, as well as by readers who wish to acquire critical tools that will enable them to assess in a more reasoned way the translations with which they are regularly confronted in everyday life (professional and otherwise). Naturally, due to its nature, this book is primarily destined to scholars and university students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, since it entails some knowledge of linguistics and the theory of translation. However, because the materials under scrutiny are likely to appeal to a wide readership, it might also be of interest, at least partially, to high school teachers and others working in the educational field. Indeed, the work implicitly juxtaposes and revises the notion of highbrow and lowbrow texts in a dialogic relation, showing the value of different cultural products that mirror aspects of society, thereby being potentially of interest to various members of that society.

The book in its entirety deals in fact with diverse textual types, including products such as television series, comics, graphic novels, etc., and in the third chapter it emphasises the relevance that translation can acquire in relation to the notion of accessibility, finally suggesting how, through an attentive and systematic approach to intralingual translation, too, many of the products that all receivers (irrespective of their age, level of education, cultural origin, etc.) are called upon to confront themselves with in their daily lives can become more comprehensible.

Certainly, by relying heavily on popular culture and its diversified expressions, this book can become extremely useful in a learning/teaching environment: by relating to products with which students are likely to be already familiar, it can in fact stimulate their interest and raise their motivation, offering them the opportunity to approach those products and the issues they address from a different perspective, finally engaging them critically in their assessment and the discussion of the reality they stem from.

Indeed, precisely because the volume refers to the translation that all individuals make not only of the texts with which they are confronted in their life, but with the authentic reality they inhabit, the very notion of translation, as suggested above, appears here broadened.

The basic concept underlying this argument therefore occupies a very precise hermeneutic position, supported by the numerous studies that authors from different epochs and backgrounds have carried out in the various disciplines. By developing and further elaborating these notions, the volume demonstrates their fundamental importance and the vital role they play, not only in the specialised field of translation, but also in everyday life, in order to enable individuals to function and act in contemporary society.

The importance that the study of translation assumes, especially in a learning/teaching environment, is therefore evident. Of course, given the nature of the volume, the topics are dealt with fairly succinctly. Nonetheless, the path outlined, and the systematisation of the notions introduced by the model, further emphasise the importance that various aspects of language (from the choice of register to the amount of information, etc.) have in our life, in both ‘monocultural’ and ‘intercultural’ contexts.²