Mind Style in Translation. Emma Donoghue’s “Room” in Italian

This study investigates the translation of Emma Donoghue’s 2010 novel Room into Italian to verify what types of translation strategies were used to overcome the difficulties this text poses in terms of grammar, vocabulary, figurative speech and interactional behaviour. The contrastive analysis shows that, by and large, the Italian translator attempted to compensate for the loss of the five-year-old main character’s (Jack’s) peculiar personifications and other linguistic idiosyn- crasies by adopting an approach that is both source- and target-oriented. Yet, it is argued that the translation process has resulted in a TT that is less stylistically deviant than the ST. Consequently, Jack’s mind style in the Italian translation is likely to be perceived as exceptional but less unusual than in the original version.