Singing Translators and Mobile Traditions: Cross-cultural Performances of Italian Folk Music in Contemporary Australia (original) (raw)

Translators, as intercultural mediators, play various roles, among which as singers and performers. Striking examples of singing and performing translators can be found in multicultural Australia. They direct Italian Australian folk choirs and transform, enrich, and enhance the Italian folk repertoire and cultural traditions across continental borders and language barriers. By applying methodological approaches, at the crossroads between translation and performance, theorized by Maria Tymoczko (1995), Barbara Godard (2000), and Sandra Bermann (2014), we will demonstrate how cross-cultural and mobile folk performances and traditions are connecting communities in contemporary Australia. In 1996, Translation Studies scholar Theo Hermans published a seminal article on the voice of the translator. Apart from identifying valuable scenarios where that voice can be heard prominently and notably, Hermans demonstrated how unique the translator's voice can be. A limitation of Hermans' study is the focus on the written text and the translator's written discursive presence, which effectively rules out another, equally important, field of research: the oral and the aural nature of texts. Until quite recently, there has been little investigation of the translation processes occurring within and around music. In an effort to partially fill this gap, this article provides a case study that illustrates how folk music and its performative drive, aided by the translational strategies adopted by different translators, has fostered multiculturalism and transnationalism as inclusive social practices.