Translating intertextuality in contemporary French literature

When faced with a quotation that leaves its mark on the text, the translator is a reader first and foremost. Thanks to his or her own readings, personal library, and knowledge of the linguistic, literary and cultural tradition - " the support of the act of translation " (Antoine Berman) - the translator should be able to recognize the hypotext, analyze its relationship with the source text, and adopt the best strategy for reconstructing the intertextual network. All this while never losing sight of the intended reader, who will in turn be treating the target text as a sort of palimpsest. The paper will examine which projects (those with a more philological slant or else more inclined to adopt domestication) were preferred by Italian translators to square up to the different intertextual situations that characterize the novels of Annie Ernaux and Alain Mabanckou.