Translation as Criticism

Themes, places, characters and voices of Elizabeth Jolley’s Mr Scobie’s Riddle are explored in detail in this monograph, which provides different narratological and translational analyses of the novel, as well as an academic translation into Italian.

Considering the challenges and issues posited by a literary work’s translation helps to shed light on the original work itself. In this manner, the translation is to be seen as a further analytical instrument to gain insight into the original novel.

The purpose of this work is to obtain a deeper understanding of the complicated microcosm created by Jolley in the nursing home of “St Christopher and St Jude”: the typically Australian themes of migration, isolation, place and displacement; the Australian culture-specific elements; the ensemble of curious characters and their entertaining voices. This book strives to preserve the above elements in translation as the expression of something Other, a different culture, and to take Italian readers on a journey to the Australia depicted in Mr Scobie’s Riddle so that Jolley’s characters’ voices can echo in the Italian language.