”Da domani [...] te ne vai di nuovo a mettere la ricotta nei cannoli” : La traduzione dei realia culturospecifici dall’italiano allo svedese nella serie dell’Amica geniale di Elena Ferrante

Sammanfattning: This essay focuses on the cultural aspects of translation, mainly on the cultural-specific elements known as realia, when translating from Italian to Swedish. As the realia might be unknown to the reader of the target text and as they often have no exact correspondence in the target language, they often pose a challenge for the translator. The essay examines which strategies the translator has used to translate cultural-specific elements and the question is raised whether the translation, regarding the cultural aspects, is orientated towards the source culture (adequacy-orientated) or towards the target culture (acceptability-orientated). Three of the Neapolitan Novels written by pseudonymous Elena Ferrante, Storia del nuovo cognome (2012), Storia di chi fugge e di chi resta (2013) and Storia della bambina perduta (2014), serve as source text of the analysis. The Neapolitan setting of the novels make them specifically suitable for a study of cultural-specific elements. The study is qualitative and complemented with a quantitative part. It is based on Osimo’s (2011) strategies for the translation of realia. The analysis reveals that cultural-specific elements of the source text tend to be replaced with more generic and international expressions. Prioritizing the narrative over cultural-specific elements the translation shows a tendency towards acceptability.