Diana Bianchi and Catia Nannoni present an intriguing discovery of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber in their article, “Back to the Future: The Journey of The Bloody Chamber in Italy and France.” Within it, they reveal intricacies and challenges involved in translating literature into foreign languages, explaining that it requires the synergy of “the source text, the target text and its culture, the potential reader’s expectations, and the publishing industry” for a successful outcome to be possible (Bianchi). Throughout the article they address each of these items along with the many tactics employed to adapt it to the target culture’s audience. The authors begin by laying a contextual foundation for the emergence of The Bloody Chamber in the two countries; then swiftly move into an analysis of the Italian translation, noting the translators’ tactics and procedures for bringing it to life within their culture. They then shift to the analysis of the French translation, explaining the nuances between the source text as well as the Italian version, revealing specific details of literature that are particularly important to each culture.
Nannoni and Bianchi explain that the book was published in England a few years before the very popular 1984 release of the film based on Carter’s wolf trilogy, The Company of Wolves; which quickly spread in popularity across Italy and France. Shortly after the film’s arrival, Italian and French translations of The Bloody Chamber were published in their countries. The authors draw attention to the fact that the books were published as a response to the film, hoping to allure the same audience. They confirm this by highlighting the ordering of stories within the book: in both translations, the well-known trilogy is positioned second after the opening story, “The Bloody Chamber.” They argue that this tactic was first included to increase the sales of the book, but also to give the book a werewolf feel, which was very much enjoyed by the cultures at that time.
Moving into the Italian translation, Bianchi and Nannoni introduce the first published version with a strong emphasis on paratextual analysis. The cover of the book hosts Italian imagery, culturally understood by Italians to be a warning against lust. There are subtle hints of eroticism through a uterus-shaped bagpipe, and notions regarding the Garden of Eden and fruit. Overall the imagery displays a chaotic, strange scene which Bianchi and Nannoni interpret as foreshadowing for the mystic strangeness of the stories within. Further, the description paragraph on the back cover is centered on the Italian culture in order to relate the people to the stories and draw them in through familiar cultural references. The authors explain that the translator of this edition, Feltrinelli, shifts the focus of the excerpt from Carter’s purposeful eroticism to more of a classic relation to fairy tales; which is more compelling for the Italian people. In a second Italian edition, the translator incorporates into the text numerous and obvious references to famous Italian storytellers such as Giovanni Boccaccio and Giambattista Basile, as well as literary hints toward famous Italian works such as Commedia dell’Arte. Along with the popular references, the translator incorporates subtle Catholic tones within the test, relating originally random occurrences with the divine work of God. These are all tactics, employed by the translators, to catch and maintain the attention of their Italian audiences.
Bianchi and Nannoni’s analysis of the French translation opens in a similar manner with the observation of the paratext. They explain that the first edition of The Bloody Chamber in French did not include a cover image or a detailed introductory paragraph; only a simple and brief statement on the back cover explaining the book’s relation to classic fairytales from the viewpoint of a woman. This highlights the simplicity of the French literary tradition, implying that the culture cares more for what is stored on the inside than what can be expressed outwardly. The authors then note that the order of the stories in the book is again altered, with the French-culture-laden tale, “Lady in the House of Love” positioned directly after the popular wolf trilogy that opens the book. Bianchi and Nannoni underline how the translator subtly highlights and honors the French tradition and culture by emphasizing and embellishing the already-present French references. In a second edition, the authors note that although it was fluidly copied into French, the second translator also slightly deviates from the source text with the intent to highlight French themes and pique the interest of a larger French audience. Along the same line of technique, the translator also uses metric conversions and even corrects Carter’s French to ensure that the story is fully understood by the French audience.
Throughout the analyses of each translation, the authors placed so much weight on the paratext—the imagery of the covers, and the short descriptions of the text—that it appeared nearly anticlimactic and damaging to their thesis which held underlying expectations of the actual text analysis. It seems widely understood that differing cultures and publishers would select differing images to represent their version of common literature and, while the analysis of such images aids with understanding the text itself, it is only a starting point from which to launch into the deeper textual analysis. Bianchi and Nannoni did offer some textual analysis of the French and Italian versions—particularly on the short, back-cover description statements as well as some textual comparisons—however, it appears still insufficient due to the vastness of the topic and the numerous textual avenues to explore. While there is more room for exploration on this topic, Bianchi and Nannoni presented a superb introduction to it, and opened a significant door to further discovery.
April 9, 2018
Works Cited
Bianchi, Diana; Catia Nannoni. “Back to the Future: The Journey of The Bloody Chamber in Italy and France.” Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies, Vol. 25, No 1, 2011, pp. 51-69.