The Transnational/Translational in Italian Studies

Playing on Apter’s ‘translational transnationalism’ and on the tension between the national and global, this article asks what it means to think translationally and transnationally in the context of Italian studies. The three authors explore both the ‘transnational’ and ‘translational’ by focusing on issues of methodology and shifts in objects of analysis. They present the translation/reception of Dante as a particularly apposite case study in the complex interplay between the two concepts and discuss the questions that the large project, ‘Transnationalizing Modern Languages’ (2014-2017), has sought to address. The relational link between the national and the transnational is explored in ways that challenge antithetical or mutually exclusive perspectives, shoring up their ‘contrapuntal’ tension. By observing the interplay between the national and the transnational/translational, this article explores the negotiation of identity and diversity which underlies all forms of cultural production and/or exchange and which is at the centre of pedagogical practice in Modern Languages.