A Series of Talks With Experts in the Field
Schmitt Hall 119 (Oct.-Dec.: 4-5:15pm)
This series of in-class talks, linked to ITAL350 Introduction to Translating taught by Dr. Marisa Trubiano, will include the following speakers:
- Michael Moore – PEN American Center and Italian Mission to the UN: “Translating Pop Culture” Thur. Oct. 8, 2015 (4-5:15pm)
- Elena Di Giovanni – Universita’ di Macerata, Italy: “Accessibility for Cinema and TV” Mon. Nov. 9 and Thur. Nov. 12, 2015 (4-5:15pm)
- Mauro Conti – Prescott Studio Surtitling Agency (Florence, Italy): “Accidental Acrobatics – A Surtitling Strategy for the Theater” Mon. Nov. 19, 2015 (4-5:15pm)
Select talks may be given via Skype in the classroom itself.
- Introductory remarks: Dr. Teresa Fiore (Inserra Chair, Montclair State University)
- Moderator: Dr. Marisa Trubiano (Associate Professor of Italian, Montclair State University)
- Respondent: Dr. Laurence Jay-Rayon Ibrahim Aibo (Center for Translation and Interpreting, Montclair State University, Director)
In-class talk with Michael Moore, “Translating Pop Culture”
A free-lance translator and the Chair of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund, Michael Moore will share his multi-faceted professional experience with the students in this in-class talk focused on the question: How do you translate an idea? In discussing the complex process of translating pop culture, Moore will explain how he overcame the challenges entailed in the translation of Fabio Genovesi’s 2011 novel Esche vive (Live Bait). In particular he will analyze a chapter in Genovesi’s book that deals with Italian rock music and will challenge students to think of strategies necessary to translate a paragraph from the chapter. Moore will also talk about his work as an interpreter for the Italian Mission to the United Nations, exploring the social and political applications of translating (writing and translating foreign policy statements, translating and editing texts for publication, interpreting for Italian leaders during their visits to New York).
Mr. Moore is a free-lance translator with over thirty years of experience in the field. His most recent translations include Live Bait by Fabio Genovesi, Agostino by Alberto Moravia, and The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi. He is currently working on a new translation of the nineteenth-century classic The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni. In addition, he works as an interpreter for the Italian Mission to the United Nation since 1993. He holds a M.A. in Comparative Literature (Penn State University) and a Ph.D. in Italian (New York University). Currently, he is the Chair of the PEN/Heim Translation Fund, an endowment that encourages the art of literary translation in America by providing grants to translators and organizing literary events.
Resources
Featured interview in The Huffington Post
“Live Bait” review
A selection of songs to be analyzed during the talk:
Gianni Morandi “In Ginocchio Da Te”
Ligabue “Lambrusco e pop corn”
Gianluca Grignani “Speciale”
In-class talks with Elena Di Giovanni, “Accessibility for Cinema and TV”
In her two talks lecturer and researcher Elena Di Giovanni will address the topic of accessibility for the media. Accessibility is one of the crucial aspects of translating and titling, providing a service that helps overcome structural limitations that different media pose. During the talks, Elena Di Giovanni will illustrate the application of accessibility techniques, and their implications at the social and cultural level.
Elena Di Giovanni is Lecturer in Translation at the University of Macerata, where she specializes in audiovisual translation and media accessibility, but also translation and writing in postcolonial settings and translation of audiovisual texts for children. In 2012 and 2013, she has been the sole international investigator in the project “Translating Music”, funded in Great Britain by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, with a special focus on surtitling for operas and music accessibility for the sensory impaired. Since 2008, she has been actively working for the provision of access to film, television, opera, theatre and cultural spaces in Italy, with over 60 events made accessible so far. Since 2000, she has been participating in international conferences and courses and has done extensive research in translation in postcolonial settings, translation as intercultural communication beyond the West, translation in India and, more recently, in Africa. She recently started coordinating an Accessibility Program for the Macerata Opera Festival at the Sferisterio di Macerata, Italy.
Resources
Sferisterio di Macerata website (Accessibility Program)
Useful material
Video-conference with Mauro Conti, “Accidental Acrobatics – A Surtitling Strategy for the Theater”
This talk with translator Mauro Conti follows up on TVAC (Translating Voices Across Continents), a project that has allowed Montclair State University students of Italian to produce, under the guidance of Dr. Marisa Trubiano (Associate Professor of Italian), the English surtitles for nine prominent plays (and operas) being presented in Italy at the prestigious Piccolo Teatro of Milan, as a part of Expo 2015 (May 1-Oct. 31). Mauro Conti and his linguistic mediation company, Prescott Studio, have supervised the work from Italy, and he will share the experience of coordinating such a joint effort across the two continents. The talk will particularly focus on the techniques and strategies used to create surtitles for live performances.
Mauro Conti (Florence, Italy, 1957), a graduate in History of Music and German Studies, begins his professional activity in 1977 as editor in chief for a musicological series (La Nuova Italia Editrice), later followed by a position as editorial head for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (the Florence Opera House) from 1986 to 1993. In the early 1990s, his professional experience in the field of operatic theatre is extended to include directing and writing. In 1987, he achieves the position of author of surtitles for the Florence Opera House and in 1996 he founds Prescott Studio, a Company that is today a point of reference both nationally and in Europe in the linguistic mediation services for the live performing arts. Prescott Studio, which collaborates with the principal theatrical festivals and institutions in Italy, can count over 1,000 productions, both opera and drama. Since 2002, in addition to presentations in Italy, theatrical titling edited and coordinated by Mauro Conti takes place in Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Prague, Santiago deChile, Muscat (Oman), Al-Manamah (Bahrain), Chicago, New York.
Resources
“Accidental Acrobatics” Mauro Conti Abstract
Prescott Studio website
- In collaboration with the Center for Translation and Interpreting and the Global Education Center at Montclair State University
- Spearheaded and sponsored by The Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies (Department of Spanish and Italian) at Montclair State University
For the Italian Translation Curriculum and Internship Project, click here