Living between cultures. An analysis of the multilingualism of the self-translator Luigi Donato Ventura in Peppino il lustrascarpe

Abstract

The paper offers a comparative analysis of the Italian, French, and English versions of Luigi Donato Ventura’s novella Peppino il lustrascarpe. The study investigates how this practice enables writers to articulate the linguistic and cultural disorientation inherent in migration, giving voice to the “in-between” dimension between languages, cultures, and identities in which the migrant author’s identity is redefined. The first part of the article situates self-translation within Translation Studies and Cultural Studies, emphasizing its interdisciplinary nature and its ability to create a hybrid space in which author and translator coincide. The second part reconstructs the historical and biographical context of Ventura, who emigrated to the United States in 1867 and is considered a precursor of Italian American literature, before focusing on a textual comparison of the three versions of Peppino. The analysis shows that Ventura exercises considerable authorial freedom, introducing omissions, additions, and syntactic, stylistic, and morphological changes, while adapting each text to audiences with different linguistic, educational, and cultural backgrounds. The three versions should therefore not be regarded simply as translations of a single original, but as texts characterized by partly autonomous expressive strategies. Particular attention is devoted to the representation of Italian immigrants in New York’s working-class neighborhoods and to Peppino himself, a young shoeshine boy whose honesty allows Ventura to challenge the negative stereotypes associated with the Italian community in America. The comparison of linguistic choices, descriptions, and culturally marked elements further reveals the translingual nature of Ventura’s writing. His trilingualism thus reflects both psychological fragmentation and a conscious act of resilience: Italian represents the language of memory, the homeland, and the immigrant community; English becomes the language necessary for survival and integration into American society; and French is associated with cultural prestige.