Professor Loredana Polezzi
Professor in Translation Studies
- polezzil@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2068 8735
- 2.02, 66a Park Place, Cathays, Cardiff, CF10 3AS
Overview
My main research interests are in translation studies, comparative literature, and the history of travel and migration. My recent work focuses on how geographical and social mobilities are connected to the theories and practices of translation and self-translation. With Rita Wilson, I am co-editor of The Translator, a leading international journal in Translation Studies. I am also a co-investigator in the research project ‘Transnationalizing Modern Languages’, funded by the AHRC’s Translating Cultures scheme, as well as a founding member of the ‘Cultural Literacy in Europe’ network.
Biography
I studied Modern Languages at the University of Venice, Ca’ Foscari, and then at the University of Siena, where I obtained a degree in English, French and Spanish. I later completed an MA in Italian Studies (Applied Linguistics) and a PhD in Translation Studies at the University of Warwick.
I taught at the University of Birmingham, before returning to Warwick, where I was a member of the Department of Italian. I served as Director of the Humanities Research Centre (1999-2000 and 2001-2002) and Head of Italian (2003 and 2007). Between December 2010 and September 2015 I was Academic Director of the Warwick Venice Centre and from 2011 to 2015 I also took up the role of founding Academic Lead for a university-wide research programme on 'Connecting Cultures'. In 2013 I was appointed Monash-Warwick Associate Professor in the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia).
I moved to Cardiff in October 2015 to take up the Professorship of Translation Studies in the School of Modern Languages.
Publications
2020
- Burdett, C. and Polezzi, L. 2020. Transnational Italian studies: introduction. In: Burdett, C. and Polezzi, L. eds. Transnational Italian Studies. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 1-21.
- Polezzi, L. 2020. Translation and transnational creative practices in Italian culture. In: Burdett, C. and Polezzi, L. eds. Transnational Italian Studies. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 25-46.
- Burdett, C., Havely, N. and Polezzi, L. 2020. The transnational/translational in Italian studies. Italian Studies 75(2), pp. 223-236. (10.1080/00751634.2020.1744869)
2015
- Polezzi, L. 2015. Migrant writing as (self-)translation: the transnational trajectory of Giose Rimanelli. In: Bond, E., Bonsaver, G. and Faloppa, F. eds. Destination Italy: Representing Migration in Contemporary Media and Narrative. Italian Modernities Peter Lang, pp. 303-322.
2014
- Polezzi, L. 2014. Migration and translation: section introduction. In: Segal, N. and Koleva, D. eds. From literature to cultural literacy. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 79-85.
- Polezzi, L. 2014. Description, appropriation, transformation: Fascist rhetoric and colonial nature. Modern Italy 19(3), pp. 287-303. (10.1080/13532944.2014.927355)
- Polezzi, L. 2014. A double taste of India: the parallel travels of Alberto Moravia and Pier Paolo Pasolini. In: Vanita, R. ed. India and the World: Postcolonialism, Translation and Indian Literature. Essays in Honour of Professor Harish Trivedi. New Delhi: Pencraft International, pp. 202-220.
2013
- Polezzi, L. 2013. Of migrants and working men: how Pietro di Donato’s 'Christ in Concrete' travelled between the US and Italy through translation. In: Nelson, B. and Maher, B. eds. Perspectives on literature and translation: creation, circulation, reception. Routledge Advances in Translation Studies Routledge, pp. 161-177.
- Polezzi, L. 2013. Disrupting Europe: polylingual models and common selves. Transversal
- Polezzi, L. 2013. Europa unterbrechen: Modelle der Polylingualität und des gemeinsamen Selbst. In: Buden, B., Mennel, B. and Nowotny, S. eds. Translating beyond Europe: zur politischen Aufgabe der Übersetzung. Mennel, B. Vienna: Turia + Kant, pp. 91-107.
- Polezzi, L. 2013. Layers of intimacy: openness and segregation in narrative representations of the Colonial House. In: Storchi, S. ed. Beyond the Piazza: public and private spaces in modern Italian culture., Vol. 4. Moving texts / Testi mobili Brussels: Peter Lang, pp. 39-56.
- Polezzi, L. 2013. Dal Bar Mexico al Sahara: fuori e dentro casa con Fabrizia Ramondino. In: Giorgio, A. ed. 'Non sto quindi a Napoli sicura di casa’: Identità, spazio e testualità in Fabrizia Ramondino. Perugia: Morlacchi, pp. 37-54.
2012
- Polezzi, L. 2012. Il pieno e il vuoto: visual representations of Africa in Italian accounts of colonial experiences. Italian Studies 67(3), pp. 336-359. (10.1179/0075163412Z.00000000023)
- Polezzi, L. 2012. Translation and migration. Translation Studies 5(3), pp. 345-356. (10.1080/14781700.2012.701943)
- Ouditt, S. and Polezzi, L. 2012. Introduction: Italy as place and space. Studies in Travel Writing 16(2), pp. 97-105. (10.1080/13645145.2012.682807)
- Polezzi, L. 2012. Migration and translation. In: Gambier, Y. and Van Doorslaer, L. eds. Handbook of Translation Studies., Vol. 3. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 102-107.
- Polezzi, L. 2012. Questioni di lingua: fra traduzione e autotraduzione. In: Pezzarossa, F. and Rossini, I. eds. Leggere il testo e il mondo: vent’anni di scrittura della migrazione in Italia. Bologna: CLUEB, pp. 15-31.
- Polezzi, L. 2012. Different journeys along the river: Claudio Magris’s Danubio and its translation. In: Youngs, T. and Forsdick, C. eds. Travel writing., Vol. 1. Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies London: Routledge
- Di Piazza, E. and Polezzi, L. 2012. Introduction. In: Di Piazza, E. and Polezzi, L. eds. Travel writing and the shape of the world. Textus: English studies in Italy Vol. 2. Rome: Carocci, pp. 7-20.
- Di Piazza, E. and Polezzi, L. eds. 2012. Travel writing and the shape of the world. Textus: English studies in Italy Vol. 2. Rome: Carocci.
- Polezzi, L. and Ouditt, S. eds. 2012. Studies in travel writing Vol 16 No 2 (2012): special issue 'Travel writing and Italy'. London: Routledge.
2011
- Polezzi, L. 2011. Precarietà: definizioni per l’uso, tra autobiografia e teoria. I quaderni della Libellula 1, pp. 12-14.
2010
- Polezzi, L. 2010. Polylingualism and self-translation in Pietro di Donato’s Christ in concrete and Giose Rimanelli’s Familia. In: Ledgeway, A. and Lepschy, A. L. eds. Into and out of Italy: lingua e cultura della migrazione italiana. Perugia: Guerra, pp. 137-146.
2009
- Polezzi, L. 2009. Reflections of things past: building Italy through the mirror of translation. In: Baker, M. ed. Translation Studies., Vol. 2. Critical Concepts in Linguistics London: Routledge, pp. 262-282.
- Polezzi, L. and Caruso, C. 2009. Intercultural nonsense? The humour of Fosco Maraini. In: Tarantino, E. ed. Nonsense and other senses: regulated absurdity in literature. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 313-334.
- Polezzi, L. 2009. Lingua, idàntità à storia in Christ in Concrete di Piàtro di Donato. In: Sinopoli, F. ed. La storia nella scrittura diasporica. Biblioteca di cultura Vol. 709. Rome: Bulzoni, pp. 137-161.
2008
- Polezzi, L. 2008. Mobility. In: Baker, M. and Saldanha, G. eds. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies: 2nd edition. London: Routledge, pp. 172-178.
- Polezzi, L. 2008. L’Etiopia raccontata agli italiani. In: Bottoni, R. ed. L'Impero fascista: Italia ed Etiopia (1935-1941). Bologna: il Mulino, pp. 285-306.
- Polezzi, L. 2008. 'La mobilita' come modello: ripensando i margini della scrittura italiana. In: Gnisci, A. and Moll, N. eds. Studi europei e mediterranei. Studi (e testi) italiani Vol. 22. Rome: Università degli Studi di Roma, La Sapienza, pp. 115-128.
2007
- Polezzi, L. 2007. White, male, and Italian? Performing masculinity in Italian travel writing about Africa. In: Polezzi, L. and Ross, C. eds. In Corpore: bodies in post-unification Italy. The Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Series in Italian Studies Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, pp. 29-55.
- Polezzi, L. and Ross, C. 2007. Introduction: reading bodies. In: Polezzi, L. and Ross, C. eds. In Corpore: bodies in post-unification Italy. The Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Series in Italian Studies Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, pp. 9-25.
- Polezzi, L. and Ross, C. eds. 2007. In Corpore: bodies in post-unification Italy. The Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Series in Italian Studies. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
- Polezzi, L. 2007. Between the exotic and the heroic: re-reading the African tales of Italian travellers. In: Di Piazza, E. ed. Fogli di anglistica., Vol. 1-2. Palermo: Flaccovio Editore, pp. 9-24.
- Polezzi, L. 2007. ‘Mal d’Africa’ and its memory: heroes and anti-heroes in pre- and postwar readings of the Italian presence in Africa. In: Hipkins, D. and Plain, G. eds. War-torn tales: literature, film and gender in the aftermath of World War II. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 39-64.
2006
- Polezzi, L. 2006. Mixing mother tongues: language, narrative and the spaces of memory in postcolonial works by Italian women writers (Part 2). Romance Studies 24(3), pp. 215-225. (10.1179/174581506x147623)
- Polezzi, L. 2006. The mirror and the map: Italian women writing the colonial space. Italian Studies 61(2), pp. 191-205. (10.1179/007516306x142933)
- Polezzi, L. 2006. Mixing mother tongues: language, narrative and the spaces of memory in postcolonial works by Italian women writers (Part 1). Romance Studies 24(2), pp. 149-158. (10.1179/174581506x120109)
- Polezzi, L. 2006. Translation, travel, migration. The Translator 12(2), pp. 169-188.
- Polezzi, L. ed. 2006. The Translator Volume 12 (2006): special issue 'Translation, travel, migration'. St. Jerome Publishing.
2004
- Polezzi, L. 2004. Between gender and genre: the travels of Estella Canziani. In: Hooper, G. and Youngs, T. eds. Perspectives on travel writing. Studies in European Cultural Transition Vol. 19. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 121-137.
- Polezzi, L. 2004. Vittime o traditori? Vecchie e nuove metafore del tradurre e del traduttore. Semicerchio: rivista di poesia comparata 30-31, pp. 7-10.
2003
- Polezzi, L. 2003. Non solo colonie: l“Africa” raccontata da scrittrici italiane contemporanee. In: Burns, J. and Polezzi, L. eds. Borderlines: Migrazioni e identità nel Novecento. Isernia: Cosmo Iannone Editore, pp. 107-123.
- Polezzi, L. 2003. Non solo colonie: “Africa” in the work of contemporary Italian women writers. In: Burns, J. and Polezzi, L. eds. Borderlines: Migrazioni e identità nel Novecento. Isernia: Cosmo Iannone Editore, pp. 309-321.
- Burns, J. and Polezzi, L. eds. 2003. Borderlines: migrazioni e identità nel Novecento. Isernia: Cosmo Iannone Editore.
- Polezzi, L. 2003. Imperial reproductions: the circulation of colonial images across popular genres and media in the 1920s and 1930s. Modern Italy 8(1), pp. 31-47. (10.1080/1353294032000074061)
2002
- Polezzi, L. 2002. Aristocrats, geographers, reporters…: travelling through ‘Italian Africa’ in the 1930s. In: Burdett, C. and Duncan, D. eds. Cultural encounters: European travel writing in the 1930s. Remapping Cultural History Vol. 1. Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 187-204.
- Polezzi, L. 2002. Did someone just travel all over me? Travel writing and the travelee. In: Le Disez, J. and Borm, J. eds. Seuils et traverses: enjeux de l'écriture du voyage., Vol. 2. Brest: Université de Bretagne Occidentale, pp. 303-312.
2001
- Polezzi, L. ed. 2001. Translating travel: contemporary Italian travel writing in English translation. Studies in European Cultural Transition Vol. 12. Aldershot: Ashgate.
- Polezzi, L. 2001. Travels through translated Africa. Anglistica 5(1-2), pp. 79-103.
- Polezzi, L. 2001. Esotismi-eroismi: motivi d'Africa nell'immaginario fascista. In: Brilli, A. and Chieli, F. eds. Immagini e retorica di regime. Milan: Motta, pp. 51-54.
- Di Napoli, R., Polezzi, L. and King, A. eds. 2001. Fuzzy boundaries? Modern languages and the humanities. London: CILT.
2000
- Polezzi, L. 2000. Reflections of things past: building Italy through the mirror of translation. New Comparison 29, pp. 27-47.
- Polezzi, L. and Di Napoli, R. 2000. What language does Italian culture speak?. In: Seago, K. and Mc Bride, N. eds. Target culture – target language?. AFSL/CILT Current Issues in University Language Teaching Series London: CILT, pp. 93-115.
1998
- Polezzi, L. 1998. Different journeys along the river: Claudio Magris's "Danubio" and its translation. The Modern Language Review 93(3), pp. 678-694. (10.2307/3736490)
- Polezzi, L. 1998. Thomas Jones: autobiografia e viaggio nelle memorie di un paesaggista gallese in Italia. Intersezioni 18(1), pp. 67-84. (10.1404/11772)
- Polezzi, L. 1998. Oltre la fine del viaggio: Fosco Maraini. Antologia Viesseux 4(10), pp. 35-46.
- Polezzi, L. 1998. Rewriting Tibet: Italian travellers in English translation. The Translator 4(2), pp. 321-342.
1997
- Polezzi, L. 1997. L’antipellegrino: ribaltamenti di un modello del viaggiare. In: Cleri, B. ed. Homo Viator. Urbino: Quattro Venti, pp. 65-79.
1994
- Polezzi, L. 1994. Concordancers in the design and implementation of foreign language courses. Computers & Education 23(1-2), pp. 89-96. (10.1016/0360-1315(94)90036-1)
1993
- Polezzi, L. 1993. Concordancing and the teaching of ab initio Italian language for specific purposes. Recall 5(9), pp. 14-18. (10.1017/S0958344000004067)
- Polezzi, L. 1993. Piero a Bloomsbury. In: Brilli, A. ed. Piero della Francesca nella cultura europea e americana. Arezzo: Universita' degli studi di Siena, pp. 21-39.
1990
- Polezzi, L. ed. 1990. Lady Bell: piccolo manuale di giochi per viaggiatori. [Little games for travellers].Polezzi, L. Palermo: Sellerio.
Teaching
I teach translation history and theory across a range of MA modules including ‘Translation and Cultures’ and ‘Translation as Creative Practice’. I also supervise research projects at MA and PhD level.
I have extensive experience of supervision and co-supervision at MA and PhD level in the areas of translation studies, migration, travel writing, contemporary Italian culture, as well as language teaching and learning.
I am particularly interested in inter- and multi-disciplinary projects connecting translation and migration, translation and multilingualism, translation and intercultural communication.
I have acted as external examiner at undergraduate, MA and doctoral level for a range of UK and international institutions and also as a consultant for the Open University’s Modern Languages programme.
My research interests revolve around the question of how culture is produced, circulated and consumed across languages and national borders. I am particularly interested in the way in which phenomena such as translation, migration and plurilingualism contribute to the vitality of cultures – but also how language barriers, or the assumption of linguistic homogeneity, affect the visibility and status of cultural production as well as cultural producers.
My recent work focuses on two connected themes: colonial and post-colonial writing linking Italy with the history of African cultures, and the intersection between translingual writing and self-translation. In both cases, I examine the complex itineraries followed by migrant texts, objects and people, as well as the way in which these multiple trajectories form transnational memory networks.
I am currently co-investigator in the project 'Transnationalizing Modern Languages: Mobility, Identity and Translation in Modern Italian Cultures' which was awarded 1.9 million by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council under its ‘Translating Cultures’ programme. The project examines Italian communities established in the UK, the US, Australia, South America, and Africa as well as the migrant communities of contemporary Italy, focusing on the wide range of cultural production and translation strategies they have adopted.
