The Power of Translation: Rediscovering the Work of Renée Reggiani for Young Readers Today

Renée Reggiani began her career as a children’s writer with her best-selling novel Le avventure di cinque ragazzi e un cane (The Adventures of Five Children and a Dog; 1960), also translated in English, among other languages. From then on, Reggiani found a way to talk about urgent social issues in Italy through a narrative style that engages young readers to follow her protagonists’ adventures. Her work is characterized by concise, clear language to reach the young reader’s heart; it explores the condition of children and women in society, poverty, and the difficult relations between the industrialized north and the more backward south of Italy. While Reggiani’s work has been translated both in the UK and the United States, recent research has shown the extensive rewriting in the English translation undermining the critical approach to social issues that characterizes Reggiani’s works. This article aims to facilitate the rediscovery of Reggiani’s literary talent for the contemporary Italian public and international readership alike by giving her original voice back through retranslation.