Antonio Donato Sciacovelli

The spectator of the short century: translating Imre Kertész

The Italian tradition of translating works of Hungarian literature has crossed periods of great enthusiasm and others of great silence. Behind this phenomenon there are cultural, historical and political reasons that have characterized the relations between Italy and Hungary also in the field of publishing and regarding the mutual interest for the literary works of both cultures. Starting from the rendszerváltás, some Italian publishing houses have shown great interest in certain authors, with the notable case of Sándor Márai’s world success, which begins with the Italian publisher Adelphi. We speak of good successes also for the work of Péter Esterházy and, lately, for the Italian edition of the books of Magda Szabó.

A very interesting case is that of the only Hungarian recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Imre Kertész: his body of work is primarily a meditation on the Holocaust and the devastation it wrought on Jewish communities across Europe, but in the latest works of Kertész we can read a clear vision of the history of twentieth century Europe. Immediately after the awarding of the Nobel Prize, the novels and the other works of Kertész have been systematically translated into Italian. In the beginning from the publisher Feltrinelli, then from the publisher Bompiani. But it seems that this writer, a very important voice in the culture of the contemporary Europe, has not received in Italy the success due, as has happened in other countries. In our speech I propose my interpretation – as translator – of the „Kertész case” in Italy, also on the occasion of the edition of his posthumous book A néző (Bompiani, Milano 2018).

Antonio Donato Sciacovelli, PhD in Literary Sciences (Medieval Italian Literature, ELTE Budapest), since 1993 has taught Italian Language and Literature, Translation practice and Literary Translation in the Berzsenyi Dániel Teacher Training college (University of Western Hungary, today ELTE), at the Universities of Veszprém (Pannon) and Debrecen, until 2016, when he started teaching as senior lecturer at the University of Turku (Finland). Specialist in Italian literature of the XIV. century, as well as a scholar of cultural and historical relations between Italy and Hungary, he`s the translator of works of I. Kertész, S. Márai, P. Esterházy, M. Szabó, Gy. Krúdy, Sz. Rubin.