Publishing Contemporary Foreign Poetry in Post-War Italy: a Bourdieusian perspective on Mondadori and Scheiwiller

Abstract

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s notions of field, symbolic capital and habitus, this paper analyzes the strategies adopted in the 1950s and 1960s by two Italian publishing houses, namely, the major Mondadori and the minor Scheiwiller, in publishing contemporary poetry in translation. More precisely, by investigating from a sociological perspective the still unpublished correspondence between cultural agents such as editors, publishers and translators, this paper aims to illuminate the role of translation both at a macro level, in the definition of the field of poetry publishing, and at a micro-editorial level, in actual translation practices. Although the discussion focuses on a specific case study, the analysis enters the topical debate concerning the function of translation within the field of cultural production, intending to offer a valid contribution to both the history of culture and the sociology of translation.