Translating The Postcolonial Identity: Language As Means Of Deconstruction. Translation proposal of an excerpt from Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi's "The Centre" from English into Italian

This dissertation aims to explore the challenges and strategies of literary translation within the context of postcolonial literature, through a translation proposal for an excerpt from the English novel The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi. The book, which addresses crucial themes such as identity and intersectionality, language and cultural appropriation, privilege and class, offers a valuable opportunity to reflect on the translator’s role as a cultural mediator. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the Source Text; it includes the examination of the postcolonial subject of the book, its textual specificity, including literary genre, textual typology and target readership, the implications of translating literature and the chosen translation approach. The second chapter presents an excerpt from the original text alongside its proposed Italian translation. Finally, the third chapter contains a detailed translation commentary exploring the morphosyntactic, stylistic, and lexical dimensions of the translation process, emphasizing its critical aspects and explaining the employed strategies and techniques. The main objective is to produce a balanced translation that captures both the linguistic specificity and the cultural connotations of the Source Text. The scarcity of translations of such works deprives the Italian reader of a fundamental perspective for understanding the complex global reality and for challenging Eurocentric narratives. In this case, translation is not a pure act of transposition, but an ethical and political act that seeks to amplify marginalized voices and promote a more conscious and critical intercultural dialogue.