Ghosts, Drunkards and Bad Language: Translating the Margins of Nabarun Bhattacharya's Kāṅāl Mālsāṭ (‘The War Cry of the Beggars’)

This article unfolds some problematic aspects encountered during the translation of Nabarun Bhattacharya's radical novel Kāṅāl Mālsāṭ(2003), published in Italian with the title Gli ammutinati di Calcutta(2016). I focus on the translation of the language of the margins, intended as social, ontol...

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Main Author: Carola Erika Lorea
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Boibhashik 2018-09-01
Series:Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry
Online Access:http://sanglap-journal.in.cp-in-6.webhostbox.net/index.php/sanglap/article/view/174
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author Carola Erika Lorea
author_facet Carola Erika Lorea
author_sort Carola Erika Lorea
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description This article unfolds some problematic aspects encountered during the translation of Nabarun Bhattacharya's radical novel Kāṅāl Mālsāṭ(2003), published in Italian with the title Gli ammutinati di Calcutta(2016). I focus on the translation of the language of the margins, intended as social, ontological as well as linguistic spaces. The difficulty of translating into Italian the richness of Bengali slang in the semantic field of boozing offers an interesting case to reveal the strategies of a radical translation practice, which resists domestication (Venuti; Spivak) and endorses the unsettling use of sub-standard language(s) in order to translate the bizarre mutiny of Kāṅāl Mālsāṭand the counter-language of its author. Keywords: Bengali literature; magic realism; reader reception; slang; jargon; social taboo; Italian; horizon of expectations;
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spelling doaj.art-0ab73913c5524d79bd69a22f6bd0fa722022-12-22T00:25:06ZengBoibhashikSanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry2349-80642018-09-01513650172Ghosts, Drunkards and Bad Language: Translating the Margins of Nabarun Bhattacharya's Kāṅāl Mālsāṭ (‘The War Cry of the Beggars’)Carola Erika Lorea0IIAS, Gonda Foundation (Leiden)This article unfolds some problematic aspects encountered during the translation of Nabarun Bhattacharya's radical novel Kāṅāl Mālsāṭ(2003), published in Italian with the title Gli ammutinati di Calcutta(2016). I focus on the translation of the language of the margins, intended as social, ontological as well as linguistic spaces. The difficulty of translating into Italian the richness of Bengali slang in the semantic field of boozing offers an interesting case to reveal the strategies of a radical translation practice, which resists domestication (Venuti; Spivak) and endorses the unsettling use of sub-standard language(s) in order to translate the bizarre mutiny of Kāṅāl Mālsāṭand the counter-language of its author. Keywords: Bengali literature; magic realism; reader reception; slang; jargon; social taboo; Italian; horizon of expectations;http://sanglap-journal.in.cp-in-6.webhostbox.net/index.php/sanglap/article/view/174
spellingShingle Carola Erika Lorea
Ghosts, Drunkards and Bad Language: Translating the Margins of Nabarun Bhattacharya's Kāṅāl Mālsāṭ (‘The War Cry of the Beggars’)
Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry
title Ghosts, Drunkards and Bad Language: Translating the Margins of Nabarun Bhattacharya's Kāṅāl Mālsāṭ (‘The War Cry of the Beggars’)
title_full Ghosts, Drunkards and Bad Language: Translating the Margins of Nabarun Bhattacharya's Kāṅāl Mālsāṭ (‘The War Cry of the Beggars’)
title_fullStr Ghosts, Drunkards and Bad Language: Translating the Margins of Nabarun Bhattacharya's Kāṅāl Mālsāṭ (‘The War Cry of the Beggars’)
title_full_unstemmed Ghosts, Drunkards and Bad Language: Translating the Margins of Nabarun Bhattacharya's Kāṅāl Mālsāṭ (‘The War Cry of the Beggars’)
title_short Ghosts, Drunkards and Bad Language: Translating the Margins of Nabarun Bhattacharya's Kāṅāl Mālsāṭ (‘The War Cry of the Beggars’)
title_sort ghosts drunkards and bad language translating the margins of nabarun bhattacharya s kanal malsat the war cry of the beggars
url http://sanglap-journal.in.cp-in-6.webhostbox.net/index.php/sanglap/article/view/174
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