The East Indies and the Literature of Repatriation: A Comparative Analysis of Paratexts in the Italian and English Translations of Hella Haasse’s The Tea Lords

Abstract

When translated, texts need to be ‘adapted’ for the target audience in order to suit specific cultural constraints. This also applies to paratexts, which are a powerful tool of shaping readers’ expectations. This chapter aims at discussing the crucial relation between texts and paratexts as well as the extent to which the latter are shaped by culture. Through a case study analysis, the chapter compares paratextual elements of the Italian and English translations of Hella Haasse’s historical novel Heren van de thee (The Tea Lords), which describes the former Dutch colonial society as portrayed by a repatriated Dutch writer born in the East Indies. The investigation aims to determine how images of a foreign culture and hybridity are transposed in two dissimilar target contexts. Attention is also paid to the impact of the target-cultures’ diverging colonial backgrounds on representing Dutch culture-specific colonial and postcolonial issues.