Italian Literature in Russia. Some Recent Important Contributions

Abstract

The paper presents an updated review of translations of contemporary Italian literature published in two issues of the popular Russian literary magazine “Inostrannaja literatura”. The first issue (2008, 10), entitled Italian Literature in Search of a Form, published translations by poets, prose writers, especially authors of stories, specimens of classic authors of the twentieth century: futurists, expressionists, surrealists, and writers of critical essays. Translation of some precious octaves of Ariosto’s poem Orlando furioso were also included. The second ‘special’ issue (2011, 8), entitled Italy: Seasons, is devoted to contemporary women writers of fiction. Particularly valuable is the Literature heritagesection, which contains translations of Vivaldi’s sonnets by M. Amelin and of G.G. Belli’s Roman sonnets by E. Solonovič, both representatives of the excellence of the Russian school of translation. The two issues include a complete index of Italian authors translated into Russian between 1994 and 2011.