In western societies humour appears in many different communicative events, and is variedly expressed through words, pictures, sounds and body language. Humour is peculiar in that it is creative, compelling, culture-specific, and produces effects that go beyond the ‘humour feeling’ aroused by a witty remark or a funny situation (Vandaele 2002:151-154). Moreover, humour appreciation does not always go hand in hand with the ability to (re-)produce it successfully (Vandaele 2002: 150, 169). These are arguably some of the reasons why humour presents an exciting challenge to translation, whatever its position may be on the acceptability-adequacy continuum in the target language (Toury 1995). After introducing the conceptual structure of humour put forward by Jeroen Vandale (2002), I will firstly analyse a sample of multi-modal non-literary texts produced either in England or Italy, as an exercise in decoding the ‘multiple’ meaning of humour (Vandaele 2002: 156) in the Enlish/Italian translation classroom. I will then examine the ‘convergent similarity’ (see Chesterman 2007) between the way humour is expressed in Jeanette Winterson’s novel Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and the Italian translation Non ci sono solo le arance (There Are Not Only Oranges) by Maria Ludovica Petta. In this translation-oriented case study I compare the (re-)encoding of humour across languages and cultures with a view to heightening translation students’ awareness of the linguistic constraints and options involved in reproducing humour. It is suggested that the insights gained by the contextualised analysis of humour across genres and languages provide translators with an increased awareness of the specific meaning of humour in a variety of text types and a basis for the examination and assessment of their own target texts.

La riscoperta della traduzione pedagogica vede la luce negli anni Novanta. Alla luce di questo importante revival, il mio lavoro di ricerca si prefigge di offrire un contributo all'attuale dibattito sul ruolo della traduzione in una prospettiva pedagogica ispirata ai principi dell'approccio ecologico all'apprendimento e insegnamento delle lingue.

• 1. What is a corpus? o 1.1 Sample or Monitor o 1.2 Synchronic or diachronic o 1.3 General (or reference) or specialized o 1.4 Monolingual, bilingual or multilingual o 1.5 Written, spoken, mixed (written and spoken) or multi-modal o 1.6 Annotated or non-annotated • 2. Corpus processing tools • 3. Analytical procedures • 4. Corpus-based Translation Studies o 4.1 Corpus-based descriptive studies o 4.2 Corpus-based applied studies • 5. Looking to the future • References

In the field of scholarship known as Translation Studies, computerized corpora have come of age in descriptive as well as applied research. The aim of this paper is to show two main features that characterize corpus-based translation studies at the turn of the century: empiricism and interdisciplinarity. To this end, I draw on Andrew Chesterman's (2004a, 2007) proposed framework for the similarity analysis of a translation profile. Firstly, I appraise the divergent similarity among descriptive studies of translation universals. Secondly, I introduce a study of Anglicisms whose aim is threefold: to unveil the translation-specific lexical primings of English loan words in the Italian language of business, finance and economics vis-à-vis donor and receptor languages; and to infer the norms that govern the translation of Anglicisms vis-à-vis original text production in a specific domain and genre.

This paper appraises the uniformity and diversity of descriptive corpus studies of translation in terms of divergent similarity, as intended by Andrew Chesterman (1996, 2004, 2007), namely the sum of relevant sameness and difference among entities originating from the same unity. The analysis focuses on the state of the art of research into translation universals. The general framework proposed by Chesterman for the similarity analysis of a translation profile is also used to introduce a study of Anglicisms whose aim is threefold: to unveil the translation-specific lexical primings of English loan words in the Italian language of business, finance and economics vis-à-vis the donor and the receptor language, and to infer the norms that govern the translation of Anglicisms vis-à-vis original text production in a specific domain and genre.

The revival of translation in communicative language teaching can be traced back to the late 1980s, when Alan Duff published the Duke of Edinburgh Award winning volume Translation, "a resource book for teachers who wish to use translation as a language learning activity, just as they might use literature, drama, project work, conversation, role play, writing, or class readers for language practice and improvement" (Duff 1989:8, author’s emphasis). Since then, the merits of translation as a language learning and testing tool have been carefully considered by language educators (e.g. Sewell and Higgins 1996), applied linguists (e.g. Campbell 1998) and translation studies scholars (e.g. Malmkjær 1998). However, it is fair to say that the widespread use of translation in foreign language pedagogy is a recent phenomenon, as testified by a variety of single-authored and collected volumes on the subject (Deller and Rinvolucri 2002; Gonzáles Davies 2004; Malmkjær 2004; Gavioli 2005; Cook 2010). These studies amply show that translation is currently regarded as a valuable learning resource for achieving lexical, terminological, phraseological and grammatical accuracy as well as stylistic fluency and intercultural competence. In the light of these important developments, the aim of this book review is to examine the link between pedagogic theory and practice in the studies contained in the volume edited by Witte et al. (2009). To this end, I will use the three-level model elaborated by Richards and Rodgers (2001) for the description, analysis and comparison of approaches and methods in language teaching.

The revival of translation as a legitimate and effective language teaching method can be traced back to the late 1980s, when Alan Duff published the Duke of Edinburgh Award winning volume Translation, a resource book for teachers who wish to use translation as a language learning activity, just as they might use literature, drama, project work, conversation, role play, writing, or class readers for language practice and improvement (Duff 1989:8, author’s emphasis). Since then, the merits of translation as a language learning and testing tool have been considered by language educators (Sewell and Higgins 1996), applied linguists (Campbell 1998) and translation studies scholars (Malmkjær 1998). However, it is only in the last decade or so that translation has begun to occupy its rightful place in pedagogic practice (Gonzáles Davies 2004; Malmkjær 2004; Gavioli 2005; Cook 2007, 2009; Witte et al. 2009). This paper takes stock of this important, welcome development and aims to make a contribution to the current debate about the future direction of translation in the theory of English language teaching. To this end, I will examine the theoretical underpinnings of an envisioned pedagogy for language and translation education that is conceived within a transcultural conceptual framework. Firstly, I will outline the main features of the ‘holistic approach to cultural translation’, as put forward by Maria Tymoczko (2007) in translation theory. Secondly, I will introduce the concept of ‘symbolic competence’ as elaborated by Claire Kramsch (2006, 2008; Kramsch and Whiteside 2008) in the theory of foreign language education. In the third and last part I will go into more detail about the convergent similarity between holistic cultural translation and symbolic competence as principles of good pedagogic practice in the contemporary globalized world.

The aim of this research project is threefold: to make a contribution of our understanding of the domain-specific primings of Anglicisms in translational and non-translational Italian for business purposes as well as across English and Italian as donor and receptor languages. This study also intends to clarify the nature of translation as an important form of intercultural communication.

La riscoperta della traduzione come legittima metodologia per l’insegnamento e apprendimento delle lingue moderne risale alla fine degli anni ottanta del XX secolo, quando studiosi di linguistica applicata come ad esempio Alan Duff (1989) affermavano che le attività orientate verso la traduzione erano di indubbio valore nella glottodidattica. Nonostante tale riconoscimento, è solo nell’ultimo decennio che la traduzione ha incominciato ad affermarsi come una metodologia efficace per l’acquisizione sia di competenze comunicative sia di competenze interculturali (Cook 2009; Witte et al. 2009). Alla luce di questo importante revival, la mia relazione si prefigge di offrire un contributo all’attuale dibattito sul ruolo che la traduzione avrà in una prospettiva pedagogica ispirata ai principi dell’approccio ecologico all’apprendimento e insegnamento delle lingue straniere. In primo luogo analizzerò l’approccio olistico alla traduzione culturale elaborato da Maria Tymoczko (2007) nell’ambito della teoria della traduzione. In secondo luogo prenderò in esame la nozione di competenza simbolica proposta da Claire Kramsch (2006, 2008; Kramsch and Whiteside 2008, Kramsch 2009) nell’ambito della pedagogia delle lingue moderne. Nella terza parte della mia relazione approfondirò gli aspetti di maggiore convergenza tra le due impostazioni teoriche, evidenziandone la forte potenzialità per lo sviluppo di una pedagogia delle lingue moderne che sia consona alle esigenze di in un mondo sempre più caratterizzato da tendenze globalizzanti e multiculturali. Infine, illustrerò come la competenza simbolica e l’approccio olistico alla traduzione culturale siano intimamente interconnesse nella prassi letteraria. A tal fine mi ispirerò principalmente alle auto-riflessioni condivise con me da Isabella Vaj (intervista via e-mail, 15.02.2010) sia sulle sue traduzioni letterarie, Il cacciatore di aquiloni (2004) e Mille splendidi soli (2007), sia sul suo libro Il cacciatore di storie (2009).

Isabella Vaj è colei che ha prestato la sua voce a quella di Khaled Hosseini facendola echeggiare tra centinaia di migliaia di lettori italiani. Già insegnante di lingua inglese e autrice di testi scolastici d’inglese, Isabella Vaj si è laureata in archeologia, collaborando poi con l’Istituto di Archeologia dell’Università Cattolica di Milano e alla rivista Quaderni del Centro Studi Lunensi. Ha conseguito il diploma in lingua araba e cultura islamica presso l’Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (ex ISMEO) di Milano, diventando un’appassionata cultrice della cultura islamica. Isabella Vaj è traduttrice dei romanzi di Khaled Hosseini, Il cacciatore di aquiloni e Mille splendidi soli, per il quale nel 2007 ha vinto il Premio Procida – Elsa Morante. È inoltre autrice di Desiderata (Cividale del Friuli, 2006), una riscrittura in chiave onirica della storia della figlia di Desiderio, re dei Longobardi, andata in sposa al re franco Carlo. Nel 2009 Isabella Vaj pubblica Il cacciatore di storie, un viaggio nel mondo dell’autore de Il cacciatore di aquiloni. Nell’Introduzione, Khaled Hosseini osserva: Spero che i lettori di questo libro, che invita a osservare più da vicino gli usi, i costumi, la poesia e l’arte dell’Afghanistan, possano apprezzare quanto di grande, di nobile, di antico vi è nella cultura afghana e provino il desiderio di scoprire l’anima di un popolo che non ha smesso di soffrire, ma non ha smesso di sperare. In quest’opera si scoprono, infatti, le tracce della storia, arte, poesia e cultura afghana lasciate dall’autore nei suoi romanzi; si leggono le storie che si celano all’ombra delle allusioni dello scrittore; si scoprono i significati simbolici del verbo run (senso di colpa, gioia, redenzione) e il valore di questo verbo come parola chiave nel romanzo a partire dal titolo fino all’ultima frase “I ran”; si apprende inoltre il significato del termine tecnico “kite runner”; si comprende il motivo della traduzione del titolo “kite runner” come “cacciatore di aquiloni” e si rivela il concetto di traduzione che sottende le rese di Isabella Vaj.

After watching the film adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner (2003) on SKY Cinema, I decided to introduce this artistic work in my language and translation classes at Master’s level. Khaled Hosseini is “an Afghan living in exile” (Hosseini 2009: 7) and in the novel he expresses his transcultural identity. Also, The Kite Runner is an international best-seller, it has been published in 40 countries and has been variedly represented in interlinguistic and intersemiotic translations. The Italian rendering by Isabella Vaj, Il cacciatore di aquiloni, has been published by Piemme in two separate editions, one including a glossary of the words in Farsi, the author’s mother tongue, the other containing 40 photographs, mostly by Luigi Baldelli, and a preface by Khaled Hosseini. In 2007 Mondadori published an abridged version approved by the author as an audiobook. The movie was released in Italy in 2007. So I was all set to acquire this material for my lessons, when, one day, while I was browsing in a bookshop at Fiumicino Airport, another book caught my eye: Il cacciatore di storie by Isabella Vaj, with an introduction by the author of The Kite Runner. I bought it and read it on my way to and from Bergen. I was truly fascinated by this original book, which gave me an insight into the world of Hosseini. Moreover, at the end of each chapter, gracefully introduced by a tiny bird carrying a bulb in its beak , Isabella Vaj, inspired by the memories and emotions evoked by reading, translating and writing about Hosseini’s fiction, tells her own stories as they are vividly remembered, fresh from her childhood and adolescence, and in doing so she (re)discovers her world through the world of Hosseini, bringing us close to both of them. The following interview, aimed at unveiling the relationship between cultural translation and creativity, was conducted via email on 15th February 2010.