Studi umanistici – Studies in American Literature and Culture
Facing Melville, Facing ItalyDemocracy, Politics, Translation
edited by
John Bryant, Giorgio Mariani, Gordon Poole
Studi e Ricerche14
14
Facing Melville, Facing ItalyDemocracy, Politics, Translation
edited by John Bryant, Giorgio Mariani, Gordon Poole
2014
A L C
Facing Melville, Facing ItalyDemocracy, Politics, Translation
edited by John Bryant, Giorgio Mariani, Gordon Poole
2014
A L C
Copyright © 2014
Sapienza Università Editrice Piazzale Aldo Moro 5 – 00185 Roma
www.editricesapienza.it [email protected]
ISBN 978-‐‑88-‐‑98533-‐‑14-‐‑5
Iscrizione Registro Operatori Comunicazione n. 11420
nella citazione delle fonti e/o delle foto.
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system,
In copertina: Franco Fortunato, , olio su tela cm. 90x30.
Contents
General Editors’ Preface xi
Introduction: “Roman Arches Over Indian Rivers” 1
“Sing in Me, Muse”: Speech and Power in Typee and Melville’s Other Early Writings 11
Mary K. Bercaw Edwards
Vocal Sounds and Linguistic Signification in Herman Melville’s Novels 25
Katsunori Takeuchi
“The Beauty of the Place, in Connection with its Perilousness”:
Anthony Antonucci
Melville’s “Pale Glory”: Versions of Heroism
Thamos D. Zlatic
Senecan Self-‐‑Command and the Rhetoric of the Fugitive Slave 69
Dawn Coleman
Fviii
The Whale and Ovid’s Metamorphoses 83Caterina Ricciardi
Democracy in America: Melville, “The Encantadas,” and the History
Giuseppe Nori
Anthony Louis Marasco
Josh Toth
Clarel, Disraeli, and Henry Adams 133
Robert L. Caserio
Clarel and the Creation of a Democratic Poem 147
Laura L pez Peña
Pierre 159
Jennifer Greiman
in Melville’s Billy Budd 173
Scott E. Moore
“True Places Never Are”: Geography and Repetition in Redburn and Other Melville Works 185
Yuji Kato
Typee
Ikuno Saiki
Indice ix
Reading Typee in Cairo: Cosmopolitanism, Cultural Exchange, and “The Gift that Keeps on Taking” 209
Susan Kollin
“Measured forms”: Translations and Transformations of Billy Budd, 1935-‐‑1942 223
Daniel Göske
Pure Language and Linguistic Purity: Translation, Fascism, Moby-‐‑Dick 241
Sarah Salter
Toward an Anti-‐‑Fascist Interpretation of Pavese’s Translation of “Benito Cereno” 255
Giuliano Mori
Works Cited 269
Index 295
Toward an Anti-‐‑Fascist Interpretation of Pavese’s Translation of “Benito Cereno”
Giuliano Mori
An understanding of Cesare Pavese’s political faith is crucial to the
Pavese’s alleged criticism towards certain forms of anti-‐‑Fascism, the so-‐‑called caso Pavese,
Gioanola 7). Yet Pavese’s
thinking. Il carcere and La casa in collinathe title Prima che il gallo canti Pavese’s po-‐‑
-‐‑¹
However, what in Il carcere
La casa in collina Pavese’s autho-‐‑
from the events, which leads him to a solitary existence as a spectator
to his reluctance to carry out his theoretical opposition to the regime, -‐‑
deepest implications: “I felt hounded and guilty, I was ashamed of my
1
Pavese, Carcere 330). Unless otherwise noted, all translations are mine.
256
and the war still goes on. . . . except for the nuisance and the shame, nothing happens.”²
version in La casa in collina, including the protagonist’s feeling of guilt
the ontological and chronological statement that it is “too late.”³ His Diary is revealing in this regard: “The idiot you met earlier tonight
How-‐‑ever, Pavese’s
Pavese’s opposition to Fascism was limited to the advocation of per-‐‑
According to -‐‑
2
Pavese, La casa in collina 444, 482-‐‑83).3 As much as
others’, and particularly to his friend Leone
Monti, whose students also included well-‐‑known Anti-‐‑Fascists such as Giulio Einaudi, Massimo himself. Moreover, Pavese’s friendship with
linked to the Italian Anti-‐‑Fascist intelligentsia. Moreover, following marginalization after 1938 and his imprisonment, Pavese acted as a representative of his editorial choices. Pavese to approach the clandestine organization Giustizia e Libertà
Pavese’s
gossip. In fact, the irritation with strong political engagement that Pavese expresses in the diaries is in keeping with his well-‐‑known reluctance to take action rather than stemming from an alleged approval of the Fascist regime.
4
idPavese, Il mestiere di vivere all Pavese’s works. See for example his 1943 essay “Fascism and culture.” Here
hardships in the hope that “things would not get worse,” and yet they always did Pavese, La letteratura americana 205-‐‑6).
5
Toward an Anti-‐‑Fascist Interpretation of Pavese’s Translation... 257
-‐‑
work for Mussolini’s dictatorship yielded extremely serious results . . .:
order to avoid any deep contact with Fascism.” All things considered, Leone -‐‑inition of Pavese’s towards those who forcedly and remorsefully enrolled in the PNF and
at heart,” as take action, found a way to covertly convey their ideas and opinions
that Pavese woulddecade of translations. Neither Cecchi, nor myself did it for leisure.” Rather, they “did it” as an act of opposition to the cultural
Between 1930 and 1945, eighty percent of Melville’s works were
in this trend. In 1932, he translated Moby-‐‑Dick and, after eight years
his Italian translation of “Benito Cereno” in 1940. Pavese’s translations of
6 “Il tentativo fascista di far lavorare gli uomini di cultura, artisti e scienziati, tecnici Mussolini, ha avuto conseguenze
207).7
8
Pavese, La letteratura americana 223).
258
censorship.Croce’s Storia
d’Europa nel secolo decimonono. A few months later, to
Einaudi launched two new series: Saggi Es-‐‑says Narratori stranieri tradotti Translated Foreign Writerswere designed to provide an alternative to the Fascist Italian culture and so to gain entry into political discourse in a way that would other-‐‑
dis-‐‑cussed Americana and Giaime -‐‑
Pintor 219).
For many people Caldwell, Saroyan and even Lewis were
culture, had survived Fascism. . . . We realized . . . that America was not -‐‑
tic theater where, with greater openness than elsewhere, the tragedy of
without any historically progressive thought to incarnate, would have
soldiers it may produce.¹¹
9 Regarding Pavese’s editorial interests in American literature and his translations, Stella.
10 Pavese and other anti-‐‑Fascist intellectuals in
when the anthology was printed without
and political at the same time. It is the history of man par excellence, in time and in 129).
11 “Per molta gente l’incontro con Caldwell,
altro paese, un nuovo inizio della storia, ma soltanto il gigantesco teatro dove con
Toward an Anti-‐‑Fascist Interpretation of Pavese’s Translation... 259
found Melville a particularly rewarding author to translate, whom he regarded as a master in the art
La letteratura americana 267).
-‐‑nomena, appear in his works. Truth and deception, tyranny and mis-‐‑
value of Melville to anti-‐‑Fascists, then, concerns method rather than content. The reality portrayed in his works would have seemed strik-‐‑
-‐‑place nineteenth-‐‑century America with Fascist Italy. At the same time, the original text would have maintained its critical weapons, as sharp
Melville’s texts. -‐‑
narratives as sea adventures. They might have realized that Melville was criticizing his society, yet it might not have come into their minds
eulogized Melville’s works in the 1930s was Hitler’s Germany.¹²
One of Pavese’s essays,translating Moby-‐‑Dick
layer. He wrote:
-‐‑torical parallel, through which one might relate those transoceanic acts of life that are usually conceived of as exoticisms to familiar issues. . . .
Pavese, La letteratura americana 173-‐‑75).
12 See Göske, “Another Rendering.”
260
-‐‑¹³
Mel-‐‑Melville
Cereno’s ship unmasks herself as a representation of Fascist Italy, and Melville’s original
Melville’s words, read in the light of Italian Fascism and with the sensitivity of its critics and opponents, seem to foster a twofold position: on the one
-‐‑
feelingsLa casa in collina: the
It was not unusual for Pavese to give a hint of his political views in prefatory sections of his works: such is, for instance, the case of the
Lavorare stanca to Augusto Monti, his erstwhile Lyceum professor and noted anti-‐‑Fascist. However, his in-‐‑
the most evident example of this tendency. In Pavese’s “Prefazione” there lurked numerous allusions to an ulterior reality, which needed
He regarded the “tendency to leave the
13
lasci stare – dopo avere gustata la ricca armonia dei nomi indiani – l’esotismo e Pavese, La letteratura
americana 35-‐‑36).14 Pavese, Lavorare stanca 9.15 As
Pavese, Il mestiere di vivere 361).
Toward an Anti-‐‑Fascist Interpretation of Pavese’s Translation... 261
The reader should leave
instead on the “mysterious reality of things,” to which the sea and the vessel allude. In fact, Pavese is not interested in what we could regard
the original American context of the tale: his critical concern lies else-‐‑where. Pavese’s reading of
assessed with regard to Pavese’s own political and cultural purposes.in his “Prefazione” are directed precisely to
The
-‐‑-‐‑
uitous in Melville’s description of Cereno’s ship, which, in Pavese’s rendering,
Benito Cereno “like a whitewashed monastery after a thunder-‐‑storm, seen perched
PT 48): one of those old
Benito Cereno 6king’s navy, which, like superannuated Italian palaces, still, under a decline of masters, preserved signs of former state”, NN PT 48). Or further, “Ruinoso e infangato, il turrito castello di prora aveva l’aria di un antico torrione, da gran tempo preso d’assalto e poi lasciato a rovinare. All’estremità opposta, si ergevan alte due gallerie di poppa . .
16
Pavese, Prefazione vii).17 Pavese, Prefazione viii).18 Such is the case with Carl
19 Pavese, PrefazionePavese, Prefazione x).
262
Benito Cereno -‐‑
-‐‑
grand Venetian canal,” NN PT 49). -‐‑
as no less than a second creation. Whereas in the English text, Eu-‐‑ropean similes were mostly introduced in a grammatically undeter-‐‑
opts to grammatically determine them all and uses “come unwhile displaying scrupulous zeal in preserving the grammatical inde-‐‑terminateness of the non-‐‑European similes, which he translates using
Melville’s Europe was
Pavese’s version it gains determination. Spending his day on Cereno’s vessel, Melville’s Amasa Delano sees America through the lens of the San Dominick. However Pavese’s San Dominique is
the poles of determination exchanged. Delano’s America slides into -‐‑
Such an inversion of perspective is clear policy in Pavese’s version of the tale: all the pièces related to Old Europe’s corruption are system-‐‑
²¹ -‐‑mosphere which suggests the corruption of the system, poorly masked
Mel-‐‑al-‐‑
²²
20 In 1931 Pavese wrote to Enrico
scientificPavese, Lettere 290).
21 Cf. Stella 204-‐‑7.22 “Nell’italiano di
Toward an Anti-‐‑Fascist Interpretation of Pavese’s Translation... 263
-‐‑tuse
In Pavese’s “Prefazione” to Benito Cereno one -‐‑-‐‑
-‐‑lano on the San Dominick certain episodes in Dante’s Purgatorio
²³
Dante’s Purgatoriomore importantly, the teleological model of the translation. The moun-‐‑
the easiest path. By disclosing reality, penetrating into the dynamics of
In Pavese’s reading, Don Cereno -‐‑
-‐‑
-‐‑
nature of the slaves’ insurrection. But why, Delano wonders. What is
Still, Captain Delano was not without the idea, that had Benito Cereno
-‐‑
overlooked.
Stella 207).23
del Pavese, “Prefazione” ix).
264
-‐‑PT 52).
On this reality presented throughout Melville’s text Pavese’s hints come into
one, namely Old Europe. A certain familiarity with such a desolate
Moreover, in translating the tale, Pavese is careful to highlight Cer-‐‑eno’s political ineptitude. If, in Melville’s text, he was the victim of a singular coup d’état, however scarcely endued with spirit and morally
-‐‑tently guilty, and truly faber fortunae suae. He is no longer a man half-‐‑
-‐‑
a way similar to the man-‐‑of-‐‑war’s world in White-‐‑Jacket. It is a universe
-‐‑-‐‑
also called “neri,” such as the Fascist paramilitary police, the Blackshirts -‐‑
sion Pavese uses in La casa in collina La casa in collina 388).
even more pronounced upon analyzing the internal divisions among
-‐‑-‐‑
Toward an Anti-‐‑Fascist Interpretation of Pavese’s Translation... 265
-‐‑
muscle power or, if read from a social point of view, as an allegory of -‐‑
tion of the San Dominick and her crew, which nowadays could seem to -‐‑
is the satirical transformation of
-‐‑
As Pavese well knew, to wake up -‐‑ much addressed directly to the Fascist
Old Italy, which, had it proven more vigorous, would have countered Fascism, with its raving exultations of death, instead of caving in to Mus-‐‑solini, empowering him and his party with total impunity. As remarked
Partito Nazionale Fascista
Party and, having done so, found themselves deprived of their own
vindi-‐‑
From an old people one expects a great coherence, respect for the law
266
other hand, they are surgical interventions. But from the old, all one
In these few lines, Pavese stresses the
and, therefore, enforcement of the law, which Fascists openly infringed.inherently political reading of “Benito
Cereno,” it is clear that this translation too was in line with what Pavese had suggested in the introduction to his Italian version of Moby-‐‑Dick: “To translate Moby-‐‑Dick is to put oneself in touch with the present times.” Pavese’s second novel, Paesi tuoione year after the translation of “Benito Cereno,” yields such a result
reading of Melville’s tale. Paesi tuoishares a common foundation with with Pavese’s translations of them. Like “Benito Cereno,” it explores
into collective guilt, and the guilt of those who do not act. Toward the end, the protagonist, Ernesto, referring to the assassination of Gisella,
slaughtered.” This is the drama of Pavese’s generation, of those who had thought —like Ernesto, who should have killed Talino in order to
The call for the transgression of an immoral law
24
gioventù e vecchiaia nelle loro ideologie informatrici, e ne consegue che a una nuova
Pavese, Il mestiere di vivere 191).25 “Tradurre Moby Dick Pavese, La letteratura
americana 84).26 “Come sono strane le cose, pensavo: uno che fosse nuovo e le sentisse raccontare,
Pavese, Paesi tuoi 139).27
Pavese, Paesi tuoi 146).
Toward an Anti-‐‑Fascist Interpretation of Pavese’s Translation... 267
who might well have used Ernesto’s words: “I have excused him who
These passages from Paesi tuoi -‐‑
La casa in collina upon -‐‑
-‐‑one who lets things take their own course and contents himself is a Fascist already.’” In light of the continuation of the themes explored in Pavese’s “Benito Cereno,” Paesi tuoi, and La casa in collina, another aspect of the translation of Melville’s tale emerges. The criticism that
Pavese himself. Old Europe’s guilt in not having taken action against the regime is something Pavese also felt, although he had no direct re-‐‑
Cereno,” like Paesi tuoi and La casa in collina, is as much self-‐‑criticism as it is criticism of those who allowed Fascism to come to power.
Carl Melville’s tale may
Both Pavese and
role of the new, totalitarian mass parties that had overthrown the old political elites.³¹
21-‐‑22).
28 Pavese, Paesi tuoi 141).
29
Pavese, La casa in collina 388).30
Ex captivitate salus31 Unlike Pavese,
Paris Peace Conference with the loss of Germany’s national sovereignty. Moreover,
268
is not particularly
, instead,
fail to recognize the cowardice and egoism that
allegedly honest dissimulation. Whilst Pavese, referring to the notion of collective guilt, admits his
-‐‑
Melville’s narrative onto the European political vicissitudes -‐‑
ings -‐‑
garded as specimens of their feelings towards the totalitarian regimes as they are manifest in On the one hand,
same academic
Melville -‐‑
vergent from the original and from each other.
Coordinatore
Membri
Delegato del Rettore per l’editoria
Il Comitato editoriale assicura una valutazione trasparente e indipendente delle opere
Editors
Advisory Board
Coordinatrice
Membri
Massimo Blasi
A continuum mechanics approach Jacopo Ciambella
Fabio D’Andreagiovanni
Nadia Peragine
Ornello Vitali, Francesco Vitali
a cura di Mariella Combi, Luigi Marinelli, Barbara Ronchetti
Antonella Biasiotta
Anna Laura Capriotti
Parola e immagine da Petrarca all’Arcadia Francesco Lucioli
10. Tampering in Wonderland Daniele Venturi
ad alto funzionamento Nadia Capriotti
Federica Di Marcantonio
13. Filologia e interpretazione a Pergamo La scuola di Cratete Maria Broggiato
14. Facing Melville, Facing Italy Democracy, Politics, Translation edited by John Bryant, Giorgio Mariani, Gordon Poole
Università degli Studi di Roma La SapienzaPiazzale Aldo Moro 5 – 00185 Roma
www.editricesapienza.it
Studi umanistici – Studies in American Literature and Culture
www.editricesapienza.it ! 28,00
Studi e Ricerche
9 7 8 8 8 9 8 5 3 3 1 4 5
ISBN 978-88-98533-14-5
W hen Herman Melville did his seven-month tour of Greece, the Near-East, and Western Europe in 1856-1857, Italy,
although still a ‘geographical expression,’ was resurging politically in its centuries-old yearning for unity and freedom. Perhaps there was no global traveler more cosmopolitan than Melville or more artistically sensitive to the peninsula’s political unrest and aspira-tions. He perceived the scenes, sounds, gestures, peoples, usages, and languages of Italy, Palestine, and the other countries he visited with a sensitivity honed by his early experience of proletarian ship-board multi-ethnicity and his immersion in the cultural diversities of the South Seas islands. His cosmopolitanism was seized upon by Cesare Pavese, who translated Moby-Dick and “Benito Cereno” into Italian, as what he may have seen as a fresh alternative to the stultifying nationalism of Fascism. The essays in the present volume are a selection from the Melville Society’s 8th International Confer-ence, held in Rome in June 2011. Cosmopolitan in their authorship and themes, they offer new insights and background for better understanding Melville’s importance as a herald of global concerns that are very much with us still today.
John Bryant is a professor of English at Hofstra University. The creator of Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies, he is the former editor of the Melville Society (1990-2013) and currently the Director of the Melville Electronic Library.
Giorgio Mariani teaches American Literature at the Università “Sapienza” of Rome and is currently President of the International American Studies Association (I.A.S.A.).
Gordon Poole, retired from L’università degli studi l’Orientale, Naples, Italy, is on the International Board of Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies.
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