Eine späte Reaktion: Die Übersetzungspolitiken des faschistischen Regimes in Italien

It is a striking fact that for most of its duration the Italian Fascist regime did not develop any specific policy concerning translations, and it only intervened to contain their “invasion” very late, when the war was already nearly lost and the regime was on the verge of collapse. This lack of action against translations is all the more striking if we consider that Fascist Italy was a nationalist regime which sought totalitarian control over society, that it had strong expansionist ambitions, and that it became openly xenophobic after the League of Nations sanctions that followed Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia. In this article I shall look at the pressure that was put on the regime to intervene against translations and explain why the regime did not react; and I shall examine the reasons that finally led the regime to adopt specific policies on translation and to try to limit their number.