(Re-)reforegnising the Foreign: Notes on the Italian Retranslations of James Joyce’s Ulysses

Abstract

The authors discuss the "disruptive potential" of Ulysses to the literary polysystem in terms of its generative and re-generative influence on cultural environment of the target language. Translation contributes to linguistic innovation through new writings that include retranslations. Bollettieri Bosinelli and Torresi's discussion of the Italian translations of Ulysses traces the differences between the seminal 1960 translation by De Angelis and the recent retranslations by Celati and Terrinoni. What sounded colloquial enough in De Angelis's foreignized translation needs to be "reforeignized" for 21st century Italian readers. While some instances of retranslation attempt to domesticate the original, micro-domestication on the idiomatic level might be actually essential for the macro-foreignization processes to become visible.