Translation Under Fascism

In the fascist regimes of the mid twentieth century -- this volume the focuses on Italy, Germany, Spain and Portugal -- translation was a carefully, though not always successfully, managed cultural practice. Translation policies attempted to steer public perceptions and promote or brake ideological change.

Translation Under Fascism examines translation practices under fascism within their historical context -- from publishers' biographies, institutional constraints and long-term literary trends right down to the textual choices made by translators and editors in individual translations. All these aspects of a translation analysis allow insight into the workings of international cultural exchange in times of dictatorship, and are of interest equally to translation scholars and historians of culture in the periods concerned.

The spectrum of translation policies and practices presented here indicates different paradigms, different obsessions and different institutional frameworks, but also shared rhetorical motifs such as the ideas of translation as a cultural weapon and translation as a form of cultural contamination.