La réception italienne de l’œuvre de J.-P. Manchette au prisme de la retraduction

Abstract

In the period following the student revolt of ‘68, a group of young writers, led by Jean-Patrick Manchette, gathered under the label of polar, or, as Manchette would later call it, “neo-polar”. A literature of revolt that exposes the darkest and most unfair aspects of society, the neo-polar seeks to be — and indeed is — a true literature of denunciation.

Despite the importance Manchette holds in the development of the French crime novel, his reception in Italy has struggled to take off: of the eleven novels published in France (one of them posthumous), only three (Nada, Fatale, and La Position du tireur couché) were translated in Italy before the year 2000; the others would all be published by Einaudi, one of Italy’s most prestigious publishing houses, starting from 2002.

This article aims to examine the Italian reception of Manchette through the lens of retranslation, focusing on his only retranslated novel, La Position du tireur couché. Published in 1981 in the Série Noire, the novel first appeared in Italian in 1992 with Metrolibri, followed by a retranslation in 1996 with Einaudi. An analysis of the editorial and translational context, along with a textual and peritextual study of the two Italian versions, helps shed light on the dynamics, motivations, and effects behind Manchette’s belated reception in Italy.