Panel: Cultural Crossings
Copanelists: Rebecca Hogan, Joseph Hogan, and Leena Kurvet-Ka¨ossar
In my paper, I will explore the interplay between life writing and translation by looking at the artistic career and at the work of Alessandra Belloni, an Italian artist who for the last thirty years has contributed to carrying the Southern Italian folk music and dance tradition to US and abroad.
Constantly traveling and working between the two shores of the Atlantic, Alessandra Belloni has come to define herself explicitly as an interpreter of the Southern Italian folk tradition into U.S. Italian communities, as well as into other Italian and non-Italian communities around the world. Having hosted Belloni’s Tarantella Workshop at the UH Mänoa campus in April 2006, and again in April 2007 through the UH Italian program, I have had the opportunity to testify to the artist’s acts of linguistic and cultural translation.
Belloni’s interpretation of the Southern Italian tradition is achieved not only through lyrics, rhythm, technique, and genre adaptation and re-creation for an American and international audience, but also through her linguistic translation of the cultural meanings embedded in this musical tradition.
My participant observation of the workshops helped me recognize the many levels and moments of translation embodied by Belloni’s performance—and by her career as a whole. These moments range from the artist’s own interpretation of gender roles within the Southern Italian folk tradition, to the Hawai‘i’s audience’s reading of this tradition, as well as to the contemporary adaptation of the folk dance tradition both within the Italian folk revival scenario and within US Italian American communities.
By looking at the oral history of Alessandra Belloni compiled by folklorist Luisa Del Giudice, my analysis will also suggest Del Giudice’s own linguistic and cultural translation of Belloni’s work, while showing her self-reflecting observations as an Italian descendant, friend, folk musician, and oral historian.
Incoronata (Nadia) Inserra is originally from Italy, where she received a doctorate in English with a thesis on Hawai’i’s contemporary literatures. She has coedited the 29–30 issue of Äcoma (Italian journal of American Studies), devoted to Hawai‘i’s cultural and literary scenario. She is now a PhD candidate in English at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and her interests include translation studies, folklore studies, ecocriticism, and Hawai‘i’s literatures in English. The focus of her current PhD dissertation is the contemporary revival of Southern Italian folk dances and its export to the US.