Monash Italian Studies Seminar Series
Semester One Programme 2009
29th April: 1pm
“Words, Sounds and Pictures in Translation”
Brigid Maher (Monash University)
1pm Building 5 (Krongold Building) Room KG 23.
In this presentation I discuss the very early stages of my new research
project, which explores the translation of films and comics, mostly
between Italian and English. The analysis of films and comics in
translation can provide important insights into the global diffusion and
exchange of popular culture. Through an examination of these two popular
art forms and the way they are exchanged across cultural and linguistic
divides, I hope to increase our understanding of the intricacies of film
and comics translation, and to explore the impact of translation on both
the translated culture and the receiving culture.
Focusing on humour in particular, I investigate the interaction between
words, sounds and pictures in the translation process. I use examples to
illustrate some of the constraints, possibilities and challenges
associated with the translation of texts that draw on both visual and
linguistic elements. I then present a brief analysis of some humorous
features of the Australian film Muriel's Wedding (1994) in its dubbed
Italian version, examining the ways humour is lost, found or relocated
in translation.
13th May: 1pm
"Levi's Western: 'professional plot', past and present in 'If Not Now, When?' "
Mirna Cicioni (Monash University)
Building 5 (Krongold Building) Room KG 23.
Primo Levi's only novel, "Se non ora, quando?" (If Nor Now, When?) (1982) is the story of a band of Eastern European Jewish partisans in WWII and was conceived, as Levi said in several interviews, as "an adventure story, a Western". I argue that reading the novel as "a Western" - in implicit dialogue with some American Western films of the 1960s whose structure has been classified as "the professional plot" - helps us see how it engages with some historical and political tensions of the early 1980s.
3rd June: 1pm.
“Reading Annabella (1965-1978): A Case Study in Feminism, Social Change and Italian Popular Culture.”
Susan Walker (Monash University)
CL_11 (Menzies Building) W210.
ALL WELCOME
for further information contact:
Dr Simon West
Lecturer Italian Studies
School of Languages, Cultures, Linguistics
Monash University
simon.west@arts.monash.edu.au