A new contribution to the development of Slovak-Italian literary relations

Antológia súčasnej slovenskej literatúry/Antologia della letteratura slovacca contemporanea

edited by Zuzana Nemčíková and Ivan Šuša (2023)

Instituto Slovacco a Roma (Slovenský inštitút v Ríme): Roma, 171 pp.

Reviewed by: Monika Šavelová

Slovak-Italian relations have been cultivated between the two nations since the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic in 1993 and have been developing at the economic, diplomatic and cultural levels, including various forms of inter-literary cooperation. In both countries, cultural institutes, as well as universities, language schools and even various associations help to disseminate each other’s culture. It should be mentioned that also the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in Italy deserves credit for the organisation of many activities. The publication of Slovak books in translation is significantly supported by the Slovenské literárne centrum (the Slovak Literary Centre, formerly the Literary Information Centre) through the Slolia grant system (most recently they have supported, among others, the Italian translation of Ivana Gibová’s book Babička [Grandmother], translated by Tiziana D’Amico). Nowadays the Italian Cultural Institute in Bratislava and the Slovak Institute in Rome are among the most active representatives in the literary field. They organise various activities such as literary talks, author readings, talks with authors or translators, etc. From the perspective of the literary field with an overlap on academic activities and research, it is impossible not to mention the Department of Romance Studies at the Faculty of Arts and the Department of Romance Languages, Literatures and Didactics at the Faculty of Pedagogy, both parts of the Comenius University in Bratislava, and the Section of Romance Studies (a part of the Department of Romance and German Studies) and the Department of Translation Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, but also the Department of Foreign Languages at the Faculty of Pedagogy of the Catholic University in Ružomberok.

In Italy, the only two existing Slovak studies centres are at the Sapienza University of Rome (the Slovak Language Lecturerate is a part of the university linguistic centre, Centro Linguistico d’Ateneo – CLA, and Slovak language is taught for the Department of European, American and Intercultural Studies of the Faculty of Humanities) and the University of Bologna in Forlì (Lettorato di Lingua e Cultura slovacca presso l’Università di Bologna con sede di Forlì). The Sapienza University of Rome started teaching Slovak language at the beginning of the 1980s, at the Institute of Slavonic Philology (Istituto di filologia slava), where already in the 1970s Slovak language lecturers were coming from the University of Naples, where the first Slovak language lectureship in Italy existed already in that period. The first official lecturer of was Agostino Visco (1981–87), the second one was Eva Rosenbaumová (1987–2008) and the current one is Zuzana Nemčíková (since 2008). The Slovak Language Lecturerate in Forlì was established in 2006 and unlike La Sapienza, where the lecturer position is filled by a specialist from internal staff, the Bologna Lecturerate is assigned to university academics from the Slovak universities following a selection process. Dagmar Garay Kročanová (2006–12), Renáta Kamenárová (2012–16), Veronika Svoradová (2016–19), Ivan Šuša (2019–23) and currently Zuzana Kubusová (since 2023) have worked here. Nowadays, from the perspective of organization, Slovak Studies in Italy does not have a separate department, there is only one person (a lecturer) teaching Slovak as a foreign language, but the lecturers are also engaged in research activities in the field of linguistics, literary and translation studies, and they publish university textbooks and academic papers.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of bilateral Slovak-Italian relations, the Slovak Institute in Rome published the bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Slovak Literature (Antológia súčasnej slovenskej literatúry, Rome 2023) by Zuzana Nemčíková and Ivan Šuša, who participated as editors, but also as co-translators coordinating the translations of their students. In particular, graduates of both lectureships, Rossella di Venere, Matteo Annecchiarico, Martina Mecco, Lianna Nobile, Silvia Cesi, Carola Carpinteri, Gaia Cantucci, Eva Vincenzi, Giulia Falsanisi, Alexandra Dunčková, Lesley Messori and Alessia Febbraro, participated as translators.

The anthology is structured as a selection of extracts of a reasonable length, which are supplemented by very functional introductory medallions that provide readers with basic biographical and literary notes about the authors and their work. It contains works by Michal Habaj, Peter Bilý, Zuzana Husárová, Mária Ferenčuhová, Katarína Kucbelová, Michal Hvorecký, Ivana Dobrakovová, Marek Vadas, Jana Beňová, Marja Holecyová and Vladislava Fekete. The publication is a significant and particularly relevant and actual contribution to the mutual cultural acquaintance of the two countries, as the carefully selected sample of authors and texts represents the work of authors debuting after 1989, i.e. after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The most dated excerpts are the poem V novej izbe [In a New Room] by Bilý and the play Krátke spojenia [Short Connections] by Fekete from 2009 and an excerpt from the novel Bellevue by Dobrakovová from 2010. The reader is thus presented with up-to-date texts reflecting contemporary problems, experiences, opinions and feelings of Slovak authors.

When selecting the thematically variant texts, the editors reflected primarily on the quality awarded at home and abroad, focusing on the genre differentiation, thematic diversity and on the choice of works for which the characteristic features of the author’s style are particularly symptomatic. Moreover, the intercultural experience is implicitly reflected in the texts thanks to the authors’ own translation experience, as many of them are renowned translators (e.g. Bilý and Dobrakovová translate from Italian, Bilý also from French and Spanish, Ferenčuhová from French, Hvorecký from German). To capture the bilateral relations of the countries in question – as far as this was possible – the editors were inclined to select excerpts contextually related to the Italian setting in terms of the present realia, as is the case, for example, in Beňová’s book Dvanásť poviedok a Ján Med [literarily Twelve Tales and John Honey]. The panopticon of characters and the subtly permeating atmosphere of today’s Bratislava illustrate the author’s ability to focus on the inner world of her characters and their way of coping with tragic, bizarre, often even grotesque life situations, which partially link the story to Rome “with” and “without” Klarissa, main protagonist’s beloved.

In other cases, this Slovak-Italian connection is directly embodied by the authors themselves, as they live or have lived in Italy (Dobrakovová, Bilý), sometimes by authors known in Italy thanks to their participation in local author readings or literary festivals (Kucbelová, Habaj, Beňová), or possibly by authors known from other academic activities (presentation of the translation of Vadas’ book The Escape, translated in English, in Italian and also other languages). Indeed, some examples present a typical Slovak environment (e.g. Bratislava’s Heyduk Street in Beňová’s Flanérova košeľa [Flâneur’s Shirt]) or communities, elements, authentic experience with marginalised groups, such as the Roma, as is the case of Kucbelová’s prose debut Čepiec ([Bonnet] 2019) (the book won the Book of the Year poll in the newspaper Pravda and made it to the top ten of the best books selected for the prestigious Slovak literary prize Anasoft litera). However, a characteristic feature of Vadas’s work is the localisation of the stories on the African continent, which is why the translators had to cope with the rendering of the myth Ako vznikla smrť [How Death Came to Be] and the characteristic linguistic specificities (e.g. words such as kalabash).

Highly topical themes and contemporary language often point to situations in which the old and the new, the traditional and the modern, the domestic and the foreign meet; texts represent everyday interpersonal and intercultural existence in its most natural forms, thus future translators are trained on the basis of modern texts in different language styles and literary genres. As a result of the genre differentiation, the publication contains several poems, prosaic texts (including an excerpt from the reader-favourite modern fantasy work Mariotovi dediči. Predurčenie [The Heirs of Mariota. Predestination] by Holecyová), as well as excerpts from drama (the aforementioned play Short Connections by Fekete).

The poetic texts vary in strophic form, free verse and bound verse, mostly free verse is tending towards atypical graphic expression: enjambment, short, even one-word verses, absent punctuation, the use of exclusively lowercase letters. For example, the poet Husárová, who is also a literary scholar and teacher, is known for her creative writing, experimental literature in various media, as well as sound poetry, interactive digital poetry, poetic performances and transmedia poetry. Excerpts from her book Hyper (2021) represent a typographic mixture of text, evoking a free flow of thought or speech (at times bordering on a certain oneiricity, dreaminess, mixing of characters), in which the use of lower case, caps lock words, crossed out passages and italics alternate, giving the reader the feeling of reading the text as it is being written. A special feature of the anthology is also the inclusion of a hitherto unpublished poem by Kucbelová entitled Emauzy (tretia kázeň) [Emmaus (the third sermon)], which is published for the first time in this volume; some excerpts have only been published electronically, such as Hvorecký’s short story Siedmy kontinent [The Seventh Continent] in the journal SME.

Modern colloquial language, slang, vulgarisms, but also realia are an interesting element from the point of view of didactics of language and translation, and especially for translation studies students, i. e. future translators and interpreters, they provide room for additional reflections on translation practices and expressive shifts – the anthology can thus be used for didactic purposes as well, and from different perspectives and aspects. To mention just one example of translation problem – the adequate transposition of the Smíchovský dvor (Smíchov’s yard) was solved by the translator Dunčková with a footnote, obviously in order to explain to the reader the protagonist’s association of the title with “laughter”, since the originally Czech name is based on the town of Smíchov in Czech Republic, but the root of the word also refers to “laughter”, as the title was understood also by the little protagonist in Beňová’s Camicia da flaneur. This random multiple meaning cannot be translated, so the translator found another strategy to bring the meaning closer to the recipient.

Minor shortcomings of the publication are a few typographical errors, missing italics or graphic shifts. In terms of translation criticism, it is a pity that the book does not have a “parallel text format”, e.g. the bilingual layout, as this would have facilitated a direct confrontation between the original and the translation. Furthermore, it would be interesting to know how the translators proceeded in cases of multiple possible interpretations of the text, and thus whether they had the opportunity to consult the meaning of multiple passages with the authors of the original texts – which turns out to be particularly relevant when translating poetry, for example in the case of Husárová’s Dovozy [Importations] and other works – and whether they benefited from it.

This publication will certainly find its usefulness also in the teaching of contemporary literature in secondary schools and universities. Its ambition is also to contribute to the positive dissemination of awareness of the Slovak language, literature and culture in Italy and in this sense, although in a different form, it complements recent activities such a publication of the textbook Corso di lingua slovacca (Milan 2022). The anthology of contemporary Slovak literature undoubtedly brings inspiring examples that will surely motivate readers to reach for the works of the featured top Slovak authors, and one can only hope that it will motivate the publication of Slovak books in Italian.