Translation Project Research Articles

Soundscape descriptors in eighteen languages: Translation and validation through listening experiments

This paper presents the outcomes of the “Soundscape Attributes Translation Project” (SATP), an international initiative addressing the critical research gap in soundscape descriptors translations for cross-cultural studies. Focusing on eighteen languages – namely: Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese – the study employs a four-step procedure to evaluate the reliability and cross-cultural validity of translated soundscape descriptors. The study introduces a three-tier confidence level system (Low, Medium, High) based on “adjusted angles”, which are a measure proposed to correct the soundscape circumplex model (i.e., the pleasant-eventful space proposed in the ISO 12913 series) of a given language. Results reveal that most languages successfully maintain the quasi-circumplex structure of the original soundscape model, ensuring robust cross-cultural validity. English, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Dutch, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish achieve a “High” confidence level. French, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Portuguese, and Vietnamese demonstrate varying confidence levels, highlighting the importance of the preliminary translation. This research significantly contributes to standardized cross-cultural methodologies in soundscape perception research, emphasizing the pivotal role of adjusted angles within the soundscape circumplex model in ensuring the accuracy of dimensions (i.e., attributes) locations. The SATP initiative offers insights into the complex interplay of language and meaning in the perception of environmental sounds, opening avenues for further cross-cultural soundscape research.

Overview and Recent Status of the Japanese Translation Project of ICRP Publications: Translation Process of the ICRP Publication 138

Overview and Recent Status of the Japanese Translation Project of ICRP Publications: Translation Process of the ICRP Publication 138

Mastering translation project management: what, when, and where

ABSTRACT The paper presents the findings from a survey of 43 translation project managers (TPMs) in Lithuania, focusing on assessing Translation Project Management (TPM) competence. Utilizing a revised version of Plaza-Lara's (2022) TPM model, the study identifies the market's expectations regarding when TPM competencies should be acquired. The results reveal that the majority of skills and abilities, particularly those within ‘(Extra)linguistic,' ‘Psycho-psychological' and ‘Strategic' domains, are preferably acquired before entering the role, while ‘Translation project management' and ‘Instrumental' sub-competencies can be developed in a short time frame. Notably, attributes like language proficiency, effective communication and responsibility are universally acknowledged as pre-requisites. Skills attainable after a few months at work or training correspond closely with the academic syllabi of universities that have already included TPM in their curricula. This underscores a significant convergence between educational curricula and the prevailing demands of the job market that universities should look into to better equip graduates for diverse career opportunities.

From Novels to Figures, Themes and Strategies of a Political Practice PART II: Sexual Difference: An Occasion for Being

The present paper is the last of a series of three papers, constituting a whole project of translation and commentary composed of translated extracts from the “Catalogo no. 2 – Le madri di tutte noi”, published by the Milan Women’s Bookstore in 1982. The idea for the project was conceived by Silvia Niccolai and Angela Condello, who selected the extracts and provided the written commentaries on the original texts. The Yellow Catalogue, in which we find collective discussions, pages of personal diaries and, overall, the enterprise of a group of women debating over their literary symbolic mothers (who to read? And why?), is an interesting example of a political use of literature. After four decades from its publication, it still proposes inspiring and fresh suggestions for feminist political action and critique, while representing an interesting occasion for researching the philosophical roots of feminism. In particular, the debate on the literary “mothers,” i.e. on the female authors that can contribute to the formation of a feminine symbolic, shows the kind of concerns of difference feminism in Italy (especially during the Seventies). The text offers, in other words, the opportunity to enter a world that nowadays – with the new, varied streams of feminism and the battles over the neutralization of sexual identity – is less frequent, and nevertheless we find it important in order to understand the social, political and cultural power of feminism. The project is composed like follows: Paper No. 1, In search of a feminine symbolic, by Angela Condello, already published on Law& Literature and Paper No. 2, From Novels to the Figures, themes and strategies for a political practice. Paper No 2 is structured in two parts. Part One, entitled “Interest in Reality.” For every woman’s autobiography, by Silvia Niccolai, is already published in Law & Literature; Part Two is the present paper: coauthored by Angela Condello and Silvia Niccolai, it addresses issues of sexual difference, identity and ambiguity, and the theories behind the idea of body and life at the core of the Catalogue.

Professional realism in practice

Abstract This article describes an attempt to introduce the elements of collaboration into translator training in the form of a multi-stage translation project. The project was carried out during regular translation classes with the participation of 70 students (translating from Italian, French, or English into Polish). The project comprised the following stages (as prescribed by two standards: ISO 17100:2015 and ISO/TS 11669:2012). Stage 0: Project preparation (pre-production) – terminological work/dialogue list preparation; Stages 1 and 2: Translation and check of one’s own translation; Stage 3: Revision – work on bilingual texts – general correction; Stage 4: Review – work on TL texts – focus on factual errors; Stage 5: Proofreading – work on TL texts – focus on linguistic errors; Stage 6: Final verification and release. Each student was asked to work on a different text at each stage. The platform for exchanging files between the students was Trello, an online task management tool. The aim of the classes was to broaden the students’ view of the current translation market through hands-on experience and to develop their teamwork skills. This article presents the proceedings of the classes, the results of the opinion survey distributed among the participants, and discusses the potential difficulties.

Evaluation of the Turkish soundscape circumplex model, and the effects of sound source dominance, sequence, and gender on the perceived affective quality

The International Standard Organization (ISO) standards series onsoundscapefor the identification, data collection and data analysis present a general framework for the soundscape studies that are conducted globally. Perceived Affective Qualities (PAQs) including 8 soundscape perceptual attributes in ISO/TS 12913–2:2018 and ISO/TS 12913–3:2019 are published in English language. Therefore, the ‘Soundscape Attributes Translation Project’ focuses on the reliable standardized translations of the PAQs in other languages. In the previously published Turkish translation and validation study, the PAQs were presented as; ‘hareketli’ (eventful), ‘coşkulu’ (vibrant), ‘keyifli’ (pleasant), ‘sakin’ (calm), ‘durağan’ (uneventful), ‘tekdüze’ (monotonous), ‘rahatsız edici’ (annoying), and ‘karmaşık’ (chaotic). Within the scope of this follow-up study, firstly, sound sources in each audio stimulus are identified according to their dominance to explore their relation with the Soundscape Circumplex Model (SCM) quadrants and found that the human dominant audio stimuli are evaluated as ‘vibrant’ in SCM. Other noise dominating audio stimuli are categorized as ‘monotonous’ while traffic combined with other noise audio stimuli are evaluated as ‘chaotic’. When the audio stimuli evaluated as ‘calm’ are investigated, they are either purely dominated by natural sounds or mixture of each category dominated by natural sounds. Secondly, a comparison between the Turkish and the English participants’ evaluation of audio stimuli according to the SCM is done and found that they are similar except two audio stimuli. Furthermore, the effect of audio stimulus sequence and gender on 8 PAQs are statistically analysed through Kruskall-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests; respectively and found that both are significant. The sequences shifting from ‘chaotic’ to ‘calm’ or vice versa frequently are seen to be evaluated with higher scores whereas more homogenous ones in sequence, i.e. audio stimuli having the same dominating sound source are sequenced together mostly are graded with lower scores of 8 PAQs except ‘chaotic’ compared to drastic changes in the sound source and found that men grade ‘coşkulu’ (vibrant), ‘durağan’ (uneventful), ‘tekdüze’ (monotonous), ‘rahatsız edici’ (annoying) and ‘karmaşık’ (chaotic) more than women by 5, 11, 24, 8 and 10 points, respectively according to the median values. Finally, conformance to the SCM is evaluated by the principal component analysis (PCA) and found that it can be reduced to two dimensions named as “pleasantness” and “eventfulness” in expected order but the main PAQs pleasant-annoying and eventful-uneventful are not aligned indicating the lack of achieving the ideal circumplexity. It is believed that the results of this study could contribute to both national and international future soundscape research with a focus on listening tests applying PAQs.

Professionals’ views on the concepts of translation: the challenge of categorisation

ABSTRACT In this article, we analyse and discuss translation professionals’ views on the concepts of their trade: the concept of translation itself but also adjacent notions such as subtitling, interpreting, localisation and transcreation. Through focus groups with translators and translation project managers working for a translation agency, we explore how practitioners understand the concepts of translation, how they categorise and why they categorise as they do. Data were analysed by means of prototype theory, and results show that the focus-group participants understand prototypical translation rather narrowly as source-text oriented, written, interlingual transfer, but also that they have a broad and nuanced understanding of translation as a category. Beyond the prototype, they use ‘translation’ as a cover term for a wide variety of tasks that involve different degrees of intervention, transformation and creativity. Interestingly, the analyses show that the practitioners in the study categorise quite differently than translation scholars do. They draw on a fluctuating set of criteria for categorisation, some of which are highly pragmatic (e.g. pricing), and their definitions are much more floating and context-sensitive. In fact, they operate with different concepts depending on whom they interact with: clients, colleagues – or scholars.

Translating perceived affective quality attributes of soundscape from English into Korean

The primary goal of ISO 12913 series is to foster a wide-ranging international consensus and establish a universal framework for interdisciplinary and professional communication about soundscapes. However, a critical challenge arises in non-English speaking countries regarding translating Perceived Affective Qualities (PAQs) from English. This translation issue is pivotal in accurately evaluating soundscapes according to the guidelines set by ISO/TS 12913–2, as it directly affects the reliability and consistency of soundscape assessments across different linguistic and cultural contexts. To address this, the Soundscape Attributes Translation Project (SATP) was initiated, focusing on the translation and validation of soundscape PAQs across various languages, with this study specifically aiming to be translated into Korean. This study aims to translate the soundscape PAQs suggested in ISO/TS 12913–2 Method A into Korean and examine the differences in soundscape evaluation between Korean and English. The study is divided into three phases. In Phase I, we gathered a wide range of possible Korean translations for the soundscape attributes and narrowed this down to twenty-four attributes. Phase II involved a quantitative evaluation of these 24 attributes to derive the most appropriate Korean attributes for the translation of soundscape PAQ. Finally, in Phase III, a listening test was conducted to discern the differences in soundscape evaluations between Korea and the UK. This comprehensive approach led to the identification of eight Korean soundscape attributes. With these attributes, twenty-seven different soundscapes were evaluated, revealing notable differences, particularly in the interpretation of the attribute ’monotonous’ between English and Korean evaluations. The findings are expected to contribute significantly to the standardization of soundscape evaluation in Korea and lay a foundation for future soundscape research and assessment in the Korean context.

When is translation geography?

ABSTRACT: Translation has been central to the history of geography. Geographers are constantly thinking and writing in translation, reading translations and translating themselves and others. Yet translation as a practice in anglophone geography remains largely invisible. This article explores two personal translation projects to argue for embracing translation as a practice of thinking geographically.

《习近平谈治国理政》用典韩译方法研究

As exchanges between nations become increasingly frequent, the importance of external promotion becomes apparent. In order to conduct effective external promotion, the role of translation is crucial. In this study, we focused on analyzing the translation of Xi Jinping's statements, speeches, lectures, directives, and letters, collected in “Xi Jinping：The Governance of China” a work that compiles his discourses. The research aimed to examine how these texts were translated into Korean, resulting in the following conclusions. First, the discourses in “Xi Jinping：The Governance of China” were categorized into three types: poetry, proverbs, and idioms. Secondly, when translating poetry, the translator mainly employed literal translation, free translation, literal translation with structural transformation, and literal translation with Chinese characters representation. When translating proverbs, the methods mainly included literal translation, literal translation with addition, and adaptation. In the case of idioms, the translator used literal translation, free translation, adaptation, Chinese Characters for Chinese Characters translation with Chinese characters representation, Chinese Characters for Chinese Characters translation with Chinese characters representation and explanation, as well as adaptation with Chinese characters representation. Thirdly, during the analysis of the translated text, it was observed that a single expression manifested in various translation patterns. This is seen as a result of the translator adhering to the principle of fidelity while simultaneously taking into account the surrounding context and the perspective of the reader. Fourthly, during the analysis of the translated text, inappropriate expressions were identified. Opinions for revisions were also provided. Through this research, it is hoped that it will contribute to the future translation projects of political texts, including “Xi Jinping：The Governance of China” and other translations related to external promotion.

Evaluating soundscape in the Italian language: Validation of the translation of the English standardized perceptual attributes of the ISO/TS 12913-2:2018 and comparison with other Romance languages

The Soundscape Attributes Translation Project (SATP) has successfully translated English standardized perceptual attributes of the ISO/TS 12913–2:2018 into various languages. This paper validates the Italian translation of the widespread use of the soundscape circumplex model attributes for using standardized listening experiments protocol. The Italian translation of the ISO soundscape circumplex model was compared with the original English version. Furthermore, a comparison with other Romance languages (i.e., Portuguese, Spanish, French) that have already concluded the validation was carried out. The study was conducted following three phases: (i) a consensus on the final eight attributes of the Italian language was achieved, (ii) the recruitment of 30 naïve normal-hearing Italian listeners and the preparation of the set-up for the listening tests was fostered, (iii) listening tests based on the 27 binaural recordings provided by the SATP project to examine the differences in subjective evaluations of the same sound environment were administrated in the Audio Space Lab of Politecnico di Torino. The main findings of the listening tests consisted in the validation of the Italian translations against English, in the comparison of the perceived loudness in the Italian and English listening tests that showed no significant differences, and in the satisfactory match of Italian translations in comparison with other Romance languages. Although slight differences probably due to cultural aspects were found, these outcomes are helpful to properly develop the Italian version of the ISO 12913-2 and to pursue accurate and replicable soundscape studies.

Evaluation of soundscape attribute translations from English to Croatian

The methods for data collection and analysis in soundscape research have been standardized in the ISO/TS 12913 group of standards. The perceived quality of soundscapes is now assessed using the eight standardized soundscape attributes distributed around the circumplex model: ‘pleasant’, ‘vibrant’, ‘eventful’, ‘chaotic’, ‘annoying’, ‘monotonous’, ‘uneventful’, and ‘calm’. As a part of the Soundscape Attribute Translation Project (SATP), the objective of this research is to provide the translations of these eight attributes into Croatian language and to evaluate the validity of these translations. Based on the Croatian translations of the attributes used in previous soundscape studies and the additional optional translations provided by independent translators, the eight soundscape attributes have been translated into Croatian as ‘ugodan’, ‘uzbudljiv/živahan’, ‘sadržajan/pun događaja’, ‘kaotičan/uznemirujuć’, ‘neugodan’, ‘dosadan’, ‘besadržajan/prazan’, and ‘smirujuć’, respectively. The validity of these translations was evaluated through a listening experiment with 32 Croatian native speakers as participants, who rated the 27 sound samples that form the audio dataset of the SATP project. The data collected in the experiment was compared to the results of the study performed in the United Kingdom with English native speakers who used the standardized questionnaire in English. The results show that the Croatian translations of the fundamental, primary attributes that define the pleasantness-eventfulness plane, i.e. ‘pleasant’ − ‘annoying’ and ‘eventful’ − ‘uneventful’ are unambiguous and appropriate, as Croatian listeners understood and rated them in the same manner as their UK counterparts. On the other hand, the results reveal a very strong association of the perception of vibrancy with eventfulness, the perception of chaoticity with annoyance, and the perception of calmness with pleasantness displayed by the Croatian participants. This finding calls for a revision of the translations of the composite, secondary attributes ‘vibrant’, ‘chaotic’, and ‘calm’ respectively. The translation of the composite attribute ‘monotonous’ has been chosen well, as the results reflect its proper perception as a blend of uneventfulness and annoyance.

Matrix-Network Modeling of Translation Communication from Perspective of Eco-Translatology

The article presents the results of a search study conducted based on ecosystemic and network approaches in translation studies within the framework of the concept of “human — network environment”. The relevance is determined by the importance of considering the socio-communicative aspect in translation activities and viewing the translator as a functionally integrated element of the network environment. Communicative-network interaction of participants in a translation project is described. The research methodology is based on the potential of matrix and network modeling methods for processing and visualizing data of translation communication. The analysis is carried out using two models: a responsibility distribution matrix and an undirected graph compiled using a social network visualizer program as a hypothetical projection of a more complex model, verified in practice. Examples of analyzing project interaction between written and oral translations based on a protocol of pilot interviews with English language translators about their experience working in a translation department at an industrial enterprise in the Chelyabinsk region are used as materials. The comprehensive methodology of matrix-network modeling allows for explicitating the specifics of work in a translation project at an enterprise, identifying control-network nodes that accumulate the main communicative load, and determining strategies to enhance communication efficiency.

C-E Translation Analysis of the Article Artistic Characteristics of Opera Character Paper-Cuts in Xinjiang in the CEA Framework

The Chinese government promotes the spreading of Chinese culture worldwide to enhance the soft power of China internationally. In this circumstance, translation of folk culture holds great significance since it constitutes an integeral part of cultural heritage, and through translation, a wider audience can appreciate these diverse cultures in different areas of China and better understand the Chinese culture in general. Based on the background of rural cultural reconstruction and the urgent situation of inheriting the precious intangible cultural heritage, the student translator took the article On the Artistic Characteristics of Opera Character paper-cuts in Xinjiang Area of Shanxi Province as the source text for her translation project. The framework of “Comprehension, Expression and Adaptation” is chosen to analyse the translation process: how the translator solved the problems encountered in understanding the text in source language, expressing the similar meaning in target language and adaptations made to bridge the cultural gap between the two languages.

Translating Ulyssei@s: Work in progress between general and specialised translation in light of NMT

It is common knowledge that the publication of translation projects carried out by students is a very motivating factor for training. Since the second semester of 2015-2016, undergraduate translation students of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto have participated in the development of the French and English versions of the digital encyclopaedia Ulyssei@s, created by the Institute for Comparative Literature Margarida Losa (ILCML) in the early 2010s. Besides motivating students, this translation project published on the Internet allows us to develop translation skills, foster teamwork, consolidate the three-phase methodology proposed by Gouadec (2002, 2007), and experiment with several essential tasks in language services: collaborative glossary-making, translation, revision of human translation and post-editing neural machine translation (NMT). Some of the challenges posed by the translation of Ulyssei@s are common to all types of translation, while others are specific to the translation of entries of this sui generis encyclopaedia, such as a variety of textual genres (biography, literary criticism, prose, poetry, theatre, essay) in hybrid texts and the need to find the original or the official translation of the works cited. This paper focuses on the data collected in the spring semester of 2022 and is based on the results of a survey submitted to students at the end of the project. It aims to share the experience of developing an inevitably unfinished project and adapting training and learning to the latest advances in Human Language Technology, since NMT has become a valuable tool for human translators, and Ulyssei@s is a digital encyclopaedia regularly enriched by ILCML collaborators with new entries.

Validating Thai translations of perceptual soundscape attributes: A non-Procrustean approach with a Procrustes projection

Measurement of a psychological construct across populations without a common linguistic medium often necessitates the development of multiple translations of the psychometric tool across multiple languages, dialects, or other population-specific variations. In this follow-up (Stage 2) study, a listening test using a shared set of 27 stimuli from the Soundscape Attribute Translation Project (SATP) was conducted with Thai-speaking participants using the set of Thai translations of the eight perceptual affective quality (PAQ) descriptors selected in earlier (Stage 1) work through a structured evaluation questionnaire. Principal component analysis was performed on the listening test data to obtain a rank-two reduction of the responses with maximal explained variance. In order to align the principal component space to the two-dimensional circumplex space, this work presents a simple and numerically stable method based on the orthogonal Procrustes projection, to find the optimal two-dimensional orthogonal transform that aligns the first two principal components with the axes corresponding to Pleasantness and Eventfulness as defined in ISO/TS 12913-3:2019. Analysis of the listening test responses indicated good to excellent interrater reliability, reflecting the general comprehensibility of the translations to laypersons. Subsequent analyses yielded a two-dimensional projection with ▪ explained variance and near-perfect alignment of the composite Pleasantness and Eventfulness axes. Angular locations of the individual translated PAQs are located within ▪ of their theoretically ideal locations and preserve angular ordering, albeit with imperfect equiangularity. Cross-analysis against the results from Stage 1 showed that the structured evaluation may be partially useful in anticipating potential imperfections of the PAQ translations and their angular locations in Stage 2.

Breaking Traditional Boundaries in Translation Pedagogy; Evaluating How Senior Lecturers Have Incorporated Digital Tools to Enhance Translation Teaching

Digital technology has brought significant transformation in translation pedagogy, mainly in helping lecturers integrate digital tools in teaching translation courses. However, it is significant to gain insights from the experiences of the senior lecturers who are gradually accepting the integration of technology in translation pedagogy. The focus of this paper is to gain insights from Professors in translation pedagogy on their challenges in transiting from traditional teaching systems to digital technological systems, also sharing their solutions to the challenges. Through the use of both survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, data was gathered from 93 extensively experienced professors in translation. The gathered data was analyzed using thematic analysis and statistical measures. The results of the data from the interviews showed four main themes, including the theme of transition challenges, the theme of assessment and evaluation challenges, the theme of inclusion and accessibility in digital technology, and the theme of actions the professors had taken in digital technology. The professors confirmed actions such as “finding appropriate online platforms that allowed for real-time cooperation" (Professor 2), "using virtual translation technologies that enabled real-time collaboration on documents" (Professor 5), and "encouraging collaborative translation exercises in real-time Google Docs" (Professor 2)”. The data from the survey questionnaire unveiled specific ways in which digital tools have assisted the senior lecturers in teaching translation courses, including teaching materials for translation courses are now prepared more quickly due to AI technologies, and automated grading systems driven by AI have reduced assessment time and generated feedback for students' translation projects. The Professors generally accepted the impacts of technological advancements, mainly AI tools, in teaching translation and improving the general performance of the learners.

An evaluation of the quality, suitability and impact on equity of clinical practice guidelines relevant to preterm birth for use in Aotearoa New Zealand

BackgroundPreterm birth is a leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality and a defining event for pregnant people, infants, and whānau (extended families). Recommendations have been made for a national preterm birth prevention initiative focusing on equity in Aotearoa New Zealand, including the development of a national best practice guide. An understanding of the number and quality of guidelines, and consideration of their suitability and impact on equity is required.MethodsGuidelines were identified through a systematic literature search, search of professional bodies websites, and invitation to regional health services in Aotearoa New Zealand. Obstetric and midwifery clinical directors were invited to report on guideline use. Identified guidelines were appraised by a 23-member trans-disciplinary Review Panel; quantitatively using the AGREE-II instrument and qualitatively using modified ADAPTE questions. The quality of guidelines available but not in use was compared against those in current use, and by health services by level of maternity and neonatal care. Major themes affecting implementation and impact on equity were identified using Braun and Clarke methodology.ResultsA total of 235 guidelines were included for appraisal. Guidelines available but not in use by regional health services scored higher in quality than guidelines in current use (median domain score Rigour and Development 47.5 versus 18.8, p < 0.001, median domain score Overall Assessment 62.5 versus 44.4, p < 0.001). Guidelines in use by regional health services with tertiary maternity and neonatal services had higher median AGREE II scores in several domains, than those with secondary level services (median domain score Overall Assessment 50.0 versus 37.5, p < 0.001). Groups identified by the Review Panel as experiencing the greatest constraints and limitations to guideline implementation were rural, provincial, low socioeconomic, Māori, and Pacific populations. Identified themes to improve equity included a targeted approach to groups experiencing the least advantage; a culturally considered approach; nationally consistent guidance; and improved funding to support implementation of guideline recommendations.ConclusionsWe have systematically identified and assessed guidelines on preterm birth. High-quality guidelines will inform a national best practice guide for use in Taonga Tuku Iho, a knowledge translation project for equity in preterm birth care and outcomes in Aotearoa.

Ver en Español: A Pilot Project to Investigate Translation Methods for Archival Exhibits and Finding Aids

The internationalization brought about by online finding aids and the United States’ expanding diverse population necessitates a renewed focus on representation and accessibility in archival research. The accessibility of archival resources depends on the language in which the content is offered to the public. Throughout the United States, the Spanish-speaking population continues to grow. Employees in the University of North Texas Special Collections department obtained grant funding to translate finding aids and digital exhibits into Spanish, with an emphasis on finding a translation solution that offered a balance between cost and quality (i.e., readability and accuracy). This article discusses possible options for translation, including translation vendors, Office 365, and DeepL; findings of the project, with specifics about the cost-effectiveness and quality of each option; and general advice to other institutions interested in undertaking translation projects, regardless of available resources.

The Mothers of Us All: Extracts, with Comments, from the “Yellow Catalogue” Published by the Milan Women’s Bookstore – Paper No. 2: From Novels to the Figures, Themes and Strategies for a Political Practice

The present paper is the second of three, constituting a whole project of translation and commentary composed of translated extracts from the “Catalogo n. 2 – Le madri di tutte noi,” published by the Milan Women’s Bookstore in 1982. The idea for the project was conceived by Silvia Niccolai and Angela Condello, who selected the extracts and provide the written commentaries on the original texts. The Yellow Catalogue, in which we find collective discussions, pages of personal diaries and, overall, the enterprise of a group of women debating over their literary symbolic mothers (who to read? And why?), is an interesting example of political use of literature. After forty decades from its publication, it still proposes inspiring and fresh suggestions for feminist political action and critique, while representing an interesting occasion for researching the philosophical roots of Feminism. The projects is composed like follows: Paper No1, In search of a feminine symbolic, by Angela Condello, already published on Law & Litterature and Paper No2, From Novels to the Figures, themes and strategies for a political practice. Paper No 2 is structured in two parts. Part One is the article here presented (Part One. “Interest in Reality.” For every woman’s autobiography) written by Silvia Niccolai; Part Two is the article Sexual difference: an occasion for being, coauthored by Angela Condello and Silvia Niccolai, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of this Journal.