Abstract:
Wang Anyi 王安忆 is one of the most influential and beloved contemporary Chinese writers both in China and abroad. She has published novels, novellas, short stories, essays, journalistic articles, literary criticism, memoirs, and film scripts over the course of fifty years, spanning from the Maoist period, the era of economic reforms, up to the contemporary period.
The present dissertation is divided into three main sections. The first chapter is dedicated to the story of her life experience and a critical review of her major literary works, an extensive exploration of the historical and literary context, followed by the individuation of narrative forms and themes that characterize Wang Anyi’s recent literary production in her short story Falang qinghua《发廊情话》(Confidences in a hair salon); overall, this section intends to illustrate the fundamental contribution that Wang Anyi has given to the formation of the identity of contemporary Chinese women. The second chapter contains the translation in Italian of Falang qinghua. A detailed commentary on the translation methodology and techniques used, including textual examples, is presented in the following concluding chapter.
The research on the narrative forms and themes of the short story translated confirmed the great value and interest of Wang Anyi’s works. In interviews and conversations, she claimed the intrinsic social responsibility that the intellectual possesses towards society and the world around her. Through her literary work, the writer contributed and keeps contributing to the change of contemporary China, its people, its women, and especially her city, Shanghai.
