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Article In: Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts: Online-First Articles

Breaking textual and gender barriers

A multimodal analysis of the paratexts of the Italian translation of Grada Kilomba’s Plantation Memories

 | University of Calabria
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Abstract
In 2021, Capovolte published the Italian translation of Plantation Memories. Episodes of Everyday Racism (2008) by Portuguese writer Grada Kilomba. In the text, the author explores the enduring effects of colonialism that still define individual and collective trauma of Black people, and reconfigures English as a new empowering mode of expression. The linguistic issue is deeply rooted in the postcolonial discourse at the centre of Kilomba’s writing, and it is further developed in the paratext to the Italian translation. The Capovolte edition introduces the schwa (ə), embodying one of the ways in which language barriers are overcome to transcend cultural and societal constraints, and translation itself becomes an act of empowerment and resistance against the linguistic and conceptual barriers imposed by (gendered) language (Santaemilia, José, ed. 2005. Gender, Sex and Translation. The Manipulation of Identities. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; von Flotow, Luise, and Hala Kamal, eds. 2020. The Routledge Handbook of Translation, Feminism and Gender. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar).
Drawing primarily on Batchelor, Kathryn. 2018. Translation and Paratexts. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar framework, this paper examines different peritexts (notes prefixed to the physical book) and epitexts (the publishing house website with links to interviews to the author and one of the Italian translators) to Memorie della piantagione. In particular, the digital epitextual elements “break” the barrier of the text, turning it into a dynamic space that combines several representational modes and, thus, requires a multimodal approach to be thoroughly decoded and analysed (Jewitt, Carey, ed. 2009. The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Moschini, Ilaria, and Maria Grazia Sindoni, eds. 2022. Mediation and Multimodal Meaning Making in Digital Environments. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar Pauwels, Luc. 2012. “A Multimodal Framework for Analyzing Websites as Cultural Expressions.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17: 247–265. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). It is only by considering the translated text and its multimodal paratext together that it is possible to assess how the Italian translation breaks gender barriers and participates in a larger discussion on language, translation and postcolonial resistance.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Debate on Inclusive Language
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Case Study: The Italian Edition of Plantation Memories
    • 4.1Analysis of the Peritexts
    • 4.2Analysis of the Epitext
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Author queries
  • References
References (54)
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