The place of activist texts in Translation Studies

This paper investigates activist communication as a translation domain to propose an “out-of-the-box” approach to translator training. After outlining the “condensing” and non-professional translation practices that are rife in the activist context, the study focuses on the titles of Greenpeace reports to shed light on the peculiar aspects involved in their translation and expound the role that their analysis can perform in the translation classroom. The pragmatic force of these titles hinges on figures of speech, puns and culture-bound references, and their translated versions are a showcase for the translation loss that characterises the passage from English into Italian of Greenpeace reports. The paper will expose the fact that translation failure is often determined by the binding constraints of the translatability of rhetoric, but also by a “soft”, superficial approach to translation. In this respect, emphasis will be laid on the alternative solutions, proposed by MA students at IULM University, to the inaccurate translations of Greenpeace’s titles. This examination will further draw attention to the translation of persuasive activist titles (and, more broadly, texts) as a fruitful subject to explain transcreation in context and encourage students to develop those analytical skills and transcreation abilities that have become essential in the modern translation market.