Connecting Languages and Cultures

The TIES Trial

Abstract

This paper revolves around three main axes: the first one regards the connection among languages and cultures which translation always performs, building a bridge of mutual understanding at a deep cognitive level by way of the complex transfer taking place among the agents involved in the process, from one code to another and from one linguacultural universe to a different one: this aspect is supported by theoretical tenets, evoked in the paper, which inspire and forge Translation Studies stances in the present scenario, shaped also by linguistic variables and varieties; the second level is represented by the distinctive case of Jhumpa Lahiri who adopted the Italian language as a chosen alternative form of expression in her authorial production, to the enrichment and completion of her own multifaceted identity; the third view is finally provided by a close textual analysis, from a translational point of view, of selected passages taken from Lahiri’s version of Starnone’s fiction Lacci (Ties), with an envisaged outcome of pedagogical potential and translational application even in the classroom.