The poetry writing and translation activity of Daria Menicanti: A translator-centred perspective

Adele D’Arcangelo & Chiara Elefante

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Title
The poetry writing and translation activity of Daria Menicanti: A translator-centred perspective

Abstract
This research is based on a “translator-centred perspective” and aims at analyzing the work of Daria Menicanti (1914-1985), considering both her work as a poet and as a translator, two activities which are deeply interconnected within her intellectual biography. Analysing some important elements of her life such as her family context, the dense network of social relationships, especially within the so called Scuola di Milano, as well as her role in opposition to some prominent male figures working for the publishing industry, we will try to shed light on this sophisticated intellectual who until now has been unfairly neglected. Some observations on textual aspects of her translation will also be presented, though they will be mainly and functionally applied to a “humanizing” research approach, aiming at considering Menicanti first of all as a person. The analysis will be conducted presenting available archival materials, both personal and preserved in the publishing houses archiveshis article questions the relevance of female translators’ correspondences for feminist translation studies. It offers a journey through three series of epistolary exchanges between women writers: that of Barbara Bray and Samuel Beckett, preserved at Trinity College Dublin; that of Barbara Wright and Nathalie Sarraute, preserved at the Lilly Library in Bloomington, Indiana; and that of André Schiffrin and Barbara Bray, preserved at Columbia University Library. From this perspective, the novelistic writings of three authors who questioned the voice (Beckett, Duras, Sarraute) are explored. The aim is to show how the analysis of translators’ correspondences with a co-translator, author, or editor, sometimes compared with other series of correspondence or other archival sources, can shed light on the translation process, contributing not only to a translator-oriented approach with a view to increasing the visibility of female translators, but also to a text-oriented approach likely to reveal their agency and creativity.

Keywords
Archival research, translator-centred perspective, gender and translation, poetry

DOI 10.17462/para.2026.01.07

23 Mar 2026

38(1) - 2026

Issue 38(1) of Parallèles

Adele D'Arcangelo

Adele D'Arcangelo

Adele D’Arcangelo is Associate Professor at the University of Bologna, where she teaches translation for publishing. Her research focuses on literary translation, theatre translation, and translator training. She has published articles on the translation of popular literature, with a special interest in romance and young adult fiction in the Italian publishing sector. She has recently began research on the role of archives in discovering the history of women translators in the twentieth-century Italian cultural context. She is also a translator and has translated works by Samuel Beckett, Steven Berkoff, and Alan Bennett.

Chiara Elefante

Chiara Elefante

Chiara Elefante is Full Professor at the University of Bologna where her research focuses on Translation Studies, in particular on the connections between translation and the publishing industry, self-translation, poetry translation, and theatre translation. In recent years, she has also conducted research in the field of translation and archival data. Besides being a scholar, she practices literary and theatre translation. Among the authors she has translated are Yves Bonnefoy, Henry Bauchau, and Pascal Rambert. She is co-editor of the open access journal mediAzioni.