Elio Vittorini’s 1941 anthology Americana–showcasing thirty-three American writers translated for the first time into Italian – transformed the literary consciousness of a nation under fascism. More recently, the publication of Elena Ferrante in English has met with unanticipated and overwhelming success. In both instances, literary translation broke through barriers of parochialism and became a defining cultural phenomenon. In this workshop we will divide our time between translating excerpts of Italian fiction to English and vice-versa in order to better understand the beauty, breadth, points of connection and challenges of both languages.
