Anna Boschetti
The transnational research carried out by the LTit group (Literature Translated in Italy) clearly illustrates the importance of “collective work management strategies,” which Pierre Bourdieu saw as a necessary condition for autonomy (2005). LTit was founded between 2012 and 2013 by Michele Sisto, Anna Baldini, and Irène Fantappiè thanks to ministerial funding secured for their collective project on the role of translations in national literary history. Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework serves as a fundamental reference for Baldini and Sisto, who have participated in ESSE conferences and maintain scholarly exchanges with Gisèle Sapiro, Christophe Charle, and other researchers working from a transnational perspective. Initially focused on German translations in the first half of the twentieth century, their project expanded in 2018 to include translations from other foreign literatures (notably Irish, Scandinavian, Czech, and Russian) with the aim of constructing a transnational history of Italian literature.
This collective project explores three main avenues: the history of the Italian literary field, the history of publishing, and the impact of translations on texts from Italian authors. Additionally, it examines the relationships between literature and other relevant fields – political, academic, artistic, cinematic, and journalistic – and pays particular attention to the main gate keepers.
Over time, the group has recruited new members who contribute to enriching the LTit digital database, launched in 2018. This online research platform catalogues translations published in book form throughout the twentieth century, establishes connections among original works, translations, and different editions of a text, and simultaneously pro-vides information on cultural mediators.
In Italy, there is no established tradition of translation studies, and the group’s approach challenges the disciplinary divisions in which the Italian university system is entrenched. Since the end of public funding in 2018, members have relied solely on research funds tied to their university positions. Due to these disciplinary barriers, early-career researchers joining the team face significant difficulties in advancing within the academic system.
The founders of LTit have organized numerous conferences and seminars, strengthening the group’s position within the academic and editorial space. Their book series Letteratura tradotta in Italia, launched in 2018 with the publisher Quodlibet, has already produced fourteen volumes, offering a reinterpretation of Italian literary history.
The group also contributed to the establishment of the CeST (Centre for Translation Studies) in Siena in 2021, directed by Giulia Marcucci, who since 2024 coordinates a PhD program in Translation Studies at the Università per Stranieri di Siena. In 2022, LTit participated in the launch of the History and Translation Network (HTN), and in the foundation of the transdisciplinary journal ri.tra: rivista di traduzione (Translation Journal) in 2023, which will soon be supplemented by the Quaderni di ri.tra series.
In 2024, Michele Sisto published the programmatic text World Literature(s). Traduzioni e storia letteraria nazionale, arguing that there is no singular world literature, but rather many world literatures that each retranslate the contributions of other literatures according to the specific possibilities characterizing the host space.
The group has succeeded in establishing a new, collective position, now serving as a key reference for scholars in Italy who adopt a Bourdieusian approach within a transnational framework.
Further readings
- LTit – Letteratura tradotta in Italia. Testi, contesti, protagonisti, web database : www.ltit.it
- Baldini, A. (2023) A regola d’arte. Storia e geografia del campo letterario italiano (1902-1936). Macerata: Quodlibet.
- Baldini, A., Biagi, D., De Lucia, S., Fantappié, I. and Sisto, M. (2018) Letteratura tedesca in Italia. Un’introduzione (1900-1920). Macerata: Quodlibet.
- Baldini, A. and Sisto, M. (eds.) (2024) Lo spazio dei possibili. Studi sul campo letterario Italiano. Macerata: Quodlibet.
- Biagi, D. (2022) Prosaici e moderni. Teoria, traduzione e pratica del romanzo nell’Italia del primo Novecento. Macerata: Quodlibet.
- Boschetti, A. (2023) Teoria dei campi, Transnational Turn e Storia letteraria. Macerata: Quodlibet.
- Boschetti, A. (2024) Benedetto Croce. Dominio simbolico e storia intellettuale. Macerata; Quodlibet.
- Bourdieu, P. (2005) “Secouez un peu vos structures” in Winkin, Dubois and Durand (eds.) Le Symbolique et le social. La reception internationale du travail de Pierre Bourdieu. Liège: Éditions de l’Université de Liège, pp. 336-337.
- Passini, M. (2024) “Travailler sur l’histoire de la traduction en Italie. Entretien avec Anna Baldini et Michele Sisto autour du projet LTit”, Biens Symboliques / Symbolic Goods, 15.
- Sisto, M. (2007) “Mutamenti del campo letterario italiano 1956-1968: Feltrinelli, Einaudi e la letteratura tedesca contemporanea” in Baldini (ed.) Pierre Bourdieu e la sociologia della letteratura. Special edition, Allegoria, 55, pp. 86-109.
- Sisto, M. (2019) Traiettorie. Studi sulla letteratura tradotta in Italia. Macerata: Quodlibet.
- Sisto, M., “‘Le sens de la lutte’”. La Breve storia della letteratura tedesca de György Lukács en Italie (1945-1958)” in Passini and Wilfert (eds.) La traduction en histoire et en histoire de l’art. Special edition, Revue germanique internationale, 32, pp. 107-129.
- Sisto, M. (2024) “World Literature(s). Traduzioni e storia letteraria nazionale” in Abignente, Cangiano, Fantappié, Gallerani, Gatto and Giusti (eds.) Teoria/Theory. Perspectives on Literary Criticism and Comparative Literature. Special edition, Status Quaestionis, 26, 2024, pp. 207-235.
- Sisto, M. (2024) “Weltliteratur made in Italy. Il canone delle traduzioni nella storia letteraria italiana”, ri.tra : rivista di traduzione, 2, 2024, pp. 20-44.