Publishing Translations in Fascist Italy

One of the important contributions that Translation Studies can make is to offer new insights to other disciplines - such as historical research in this instance - by virtue of the fact that it makes use of sources which have tended to be overlooked in the past: i.e. translations and the discourse that has surrounded translations. As far this study is concerned then, historical sources on Fascism have undergone an immense amount of study by scholars from all over the world; but firstly, comparatively few have looked at these sources with the question of translations in mind, and secondly a lot of material has passed unnoticed because it concerned a 'minor' subject such as translation. The potential value of my own work, then, is that it looks at familiar material in a new light, and that it brings into the picture material that has not previously been taken into consideration. My hope is that this study will be of value to those who are interested in translations and the role they can play in the history of a culture - the importance of which has been increasingly recognised in the last 10-15 years - and to those who are interested in the history of Italian culture during the fascist era and especially the history of Italian publishing, and who have, perhaps, an incomplete picture of the role played by translation in this history.