The history of Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s anti-Semitic pamphlet Bagatelles pour un massacre in Italian and English translations: the Contradictions of Censorship.

Abstract

This dissertation offers a case study of Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s anti-Semitic pamphlet Bagatelles pour un massacre (1937) in English and Italian translations with a particular focus on the forms of censorship applied to it, its manifestations, causes and consequences. This research is contained within the framework of descriptive translation studies, critical discourse analysis and translation history. It defines the source text as an ideologically problematic text in France through a textual analysis and a comprehensive history of publication and reception of the work. It is at the heart of uninterrupted controversies and is censored from 1945 onwards. The text is consequently situated in the wider context of ideological literature in translation by comparing the history of publication of the pamphlet in Italy and in the English-speaking world. It attempts to define the socio-cultural implications of the total censorship imposed on its English translations, while questioning the fact that the pamphlet has been published more times in Italy than in its source country. The possible manipulation of ideological texts in translation is illustrated through the comparative case study of the Italian translation of 1937 produced according to the Fascist’s regime rules. Finally, the idiosyncrasy of the ST and its temporal and ideological distance with the contemporary context are defined as the principal causes of the censorship still applied to the pamphlet. These cultural gaps could be overcome by the integration of the text in the duty of remembrance. The institutional publication of the English and Italian translations might thus avoid dangerous political reuses linked to the greater diffusion of unprofessionally translated texts via new technologies.