Anti-clericalism in translation: Anti-Catholic ideology in the English translation of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s Clelia o il governo dei preti (1870)

Abstract

Giuseppe Garibaldi’s novel Clelia o il governo dei preti (1870) is an exposition of the Italian hero’s strong anti-clerical sentiments in the form of a historical novel. Even before its publication in Italian, the novel was translated and published in England and the United States. The study examines how the source text was appropriated by the anonymous translator to suit the ideological agenda of radical anti-Catholic Protestant groups in Britain and America in the second half of the 19th century. The translation is considered within the historical context of Garibaldi’s celebrity status, the fortunes of his memoirs and literary works and the anti-Catholic campaigns in Britain and the US in the 19th century. The translation strategies adopted by the translator to rewrite Garibaldi’s novel according to the propaganda requirements and the sensibilities of Anglo-American Protestant readers particularly hostile to the Catholic Church are analyzed from the perspective of Lefevere’s view of translation as rewriting and its relationship with ideology, as well as Venuti’s identification of domestication as an ideological translation strategy.