Translating Italian Popular Science: A Translation Proposal of the Dossier “Il Corpo che Soffre”

Abstract

This dissertation aims to provide a translation from Italian to English of the dossier Il corpo che soffre (“The suffering body”), published by the Italian monthly magazine MIND. MIND is the Italian edition of the American popular science magazine Scientific American; as such, it covers a wide range of subjects, including psychology and neurosciences, although it is intended for a general audience. The special report consists of three articles written by Paola Emilia Cicerone, Federica Sgorbissa, and Beatrice Dondi and focuses on women’s pain, gender medicine, and therapeutic abortion in the order mentioned. The selection of this topic has been motivated by both my interest in specialised translation and my desire to raise awareness on the challenges that Italian women have to face when it comes to women’s health. The thesis is divided into four chapters, each dealing with a different phase of the translation process. Chapter 1 offers a theoretical background for technical and scientific text translation, particularly in popular science magazines published in English-speaking countries. The second chapter examines how women’s pain is perceived in the target culture and presents a preliminary analysis of the text following Christiane Nord’s model (1991). This approach allows to determine the target-text function and the model reader for the translated text. Subsequently, the text is examined through a macrostructural perspective, including the potential problematic translation issues that might arise from the translation process. Chapter 3 features the original text and its translation proposal, which are prefaced by a brief introduction describing the macro-level approach to the target text. Finally, in Chapter 4, I address the issues encountered during the translation process and illustrate the translation strategies I employed accordingly. The dissertation ends with a reflection on the whole work and a bilingual glossary highlighting the keywords and key phrases that may be useful for translators working on this topic.