D'Annunzio in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Throughout this volume, we have paid particular attention to the role of translators as agents mediating D’Annunzio’s place in world literature. As a conclusion, we return to the role of translators, this time to consider our contemporary context. To this end, we con-tacted and interviewed a number of translators, working in differ-ent languages, who engaged with D’Annunzio’s texts from the late 1970s to today. The questions we asked concerned a range of issues, including the translators’ backgrounds (whether they were familiar with D’Annunzio scholarship, and/or with translation theory), the context of their translation (whether they were commissioned the translation, or else their motivation for choosing this piece/author), their approach to D’Annunzio’s style, their goals and who they had in mind as a reader. We also asked them to comment on their stance on aspects of D’Annunzio that were – at least in some contexts – con-troversial, such as his treatment/portrayal of women, his ideology and his relation to Fascism. We concluded with a question that con-cerned the value of translating D’Annunzio today, and what aspects of his writing may still speak to contemporary readers.