Motherhood and Socialism in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath": a Contrastive Analysis of the Italian Translations

Abstract

This thesis presents a critical reading of John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel “The Grapes of Wrath” centered on the main female characters of the novel, Ma Joad and her daughter Rose of Sharon who, in the context of the novel, represent a ‘socialism of the feelings’ that has to be intended much more as social mission than as a fight against the power of the banks and the dispossession of the properties. My reading of the novel will revolve around the comparison of three different realizations of the text. The original version will be confronted with the two existing Italian translations, the first one by Carlo Coardi (1940) and the latest by Sergio Claudio Perroni (2014), and to its cinematic version, directed by John Ford (1940). Some selected scenes have been chosen for their relevance to the theme of this dissertation: their contrastive analysis will show how the historical period conditioned the earlier Italian translation, how the characters of Ma Joad and Rose of Sharon have emerged differently in the three versions and consequently how specific semantic choices can play a crucial role in the way in which the character is perceived by the reader or viewer. The two women have been considered pivotal, both narratologically and thematically, and through their characterization it has been possible to analyze some of the themes essential to the novel.