Alice in Busi-Land: the reciprocal relation between text and paratext

While Genette places translations among the paratexts of the original work, something that Tahir-Gürçaglar (2002: 46) rightly takes exception to as it 'disempowers the translator' and relegates the TT to a derivative status, I will argue that it is the ST that in fact becomes one of the many paratextual elements for the subsequent translation and that each successive translation adds to what Genette terms the épitexte. The field is vast and extremely varied: my investigation will be limited to Italian translations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, analysing a variety of paratextual elements and their influence on the reception Carroll's work in Italy (the text under Fascism, as published for children, for the crossover market, as an object of academic study, as a publishing phenomenon, etc.) but with specific reference to Aldo Busi's translation (1988), one of the most commercially successful, judged by many to be every bit as controversial as Busi himself, establishing how the reputation of the translator becomes a paratextual element in itself, informing the reading of the TT. Busi, an author in his own right, is widely regarded as an 'enfant terrible' of the Italian literary scene, having had to clear his name in a trial for obscenity and being implicated in numerous provocative outpourings on national television including one infamous episode that was interpreted by many as a defence of paedophilia, arguably adding to the layers of interpretation of the much-discussed ambiguous nature of Lewis Carroll's associations with young children. Some of these episodes pre-date the publication of Busi's translation, others are subsequent: I shall analyse, therefore, how paratextual elements such as TV appearances, interviews, scandals, reputations can inform a text whether they be antérieur or ultérieur to use Genette's terminology.