Constanza Amato
Constructing the landscape. Delpastre’s poetry as translation process
The XX century Occitan literary production plays a fundamental role in the spatial definition of the South of France. The translation of the phenomenological reality into a literary representation of its landscape proofs the profound interconnection between the Occitan space and culture within the same symbolic system. This spaceculture relationship finds evidence in Occitan poet and anthropologist Marcela Delpastre (1925- 1998), whose poetry translates into literature the existence of a balanced harmony between human beings and their environment, in terms of conservation and perpetuation of the territory’s biodiversity. From a phenomenological perspective, Marcela Delpastre’s poetry manifests itself as a written translation of the local cultural practices connected to the tradition of a specific geographical area. In semiotic terms, we may state that landscape does not exist only because it is immediately visible and perceivable through the senses, but also because it always reveals and preserves the signs of something that goes beyond its appearance. Therefore, a projective observation is necessary, based on the existence of two essential stages in the interpretation of material reality, such as abduction, or the hypotheses and visions that we create starting from the phenomenal reality; and translation, thus the transition from phenomenal reality to a semiotic reality that reveals the invisible beyond appearances. Delpastre’s poetry is an example of this translation multidimensionality: that of the ethnologist devoted to the collection and transmission of agricultural practices and of the oral culture of her community. On the other hand, there is the observation of the territory from which she draws inspiration for her poetic works. In addition thereto, Marcela Delpastre was part and parcel of the rural community of her time as she practiced agriculture in her family farm. It will be shown how the translation process comes both from the inside and from the outside, giving the landscape a material value that reveals, at the same time, psychological and aesthetic patterns.
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Bio:
Costanza Amato is an independent scholar based in Sicily, Italy, and she is also French and English teacher at school and Italian teacher for foreign students in Palermo. She was MA student in Foreign Languages and Translation at University of Ferrara where she previously graduated with Distinction (110/110 Cum Laude) in 2020. After a period of study and research at University of Toulouse II Jean Jaurès, France, she has been specializing in contemporary Occitan literature and language. She also participated at conferences and symposia of international interest, such as “Macerata Festival of Humanities: Sustainable Humanities – The Humanities, the Social Sciences and Sustainability. Challenges and Perspectives” (Macerata, 2022); “E nadi contra suberna. Essere ‘trovatori’ oggi” (Ferrara, 2018), “NewFaces. Facing Europe in Crisis: Shakespeare’s world and present challenges” (Montpellier, 2018). In 2021 she was awarded of International Prize Pèire Bec for her academic dissertation in Occitan studies. Her field of research concerns the relationship between language, culture and environment and how these three components may be translated into literature. In recent years she has been investigating how the concept of translation can be understood in a broad sense, that is, how the representation of space and living bodies takes place through literature and how it might contribute to spreading new visions and perspectives of reality.