Irena Stanic Rasin

Irena Stanic Rasin’s lecture on the dynamics involved in translating from one language to another is both engaging and highly informative. She skillfully explores this topic in tandem with the introduction and review of the novel entitled Threshold (Sulla soglia) written by Gianna Manzini and first published in 1973. Ms. Stanic Rasin translated this magical literary work from Italian into English with Laura E. Ruberto. 

The writing style employed by Manzini, with its dreamlike quality, the overt and covert infusion of symbolism, idiomatic language, the ambiguities of culturally bound content and context, the use of self-reflection and flashbacks,  provides the major framework upon which Ms. Stanic Rasin builds her presentation. In other words, these and many more considerations and factors are but some of obstacles and challenges to the creative art and process of unobtrusively and accurately crossing over (i.e. translating meaning) from one language and cultural context to another. 

My personal take-away from Ms. Stanic Rasin’s lecture is a heightened appreciation of the subtleties, nuances, and high degree of skill required to bring relevancy and life to a work of translation; literary translation being but one of the many types of translations she brings to the attention of her audience.

Melvena L. Green, Ed.D.

Educator in the fields of Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language

Literary translations are often taken for granted by readers. For translators, they are works of art in their own right. Going beyond linguistics, Irena Stanic Rasin used her first-hand experience as a translator to explore the not-frequently-thought-of obstacles translators face. Using Gianna Manzini’s book Sulla soglia (Threshold) , easy-to-comprehend examples in Italian, and the backdrop of Eataly Boston, Stanic Rasin engaged readers to gain new perspective on literary translations. 

Raquel Hitt

Director of Operations

Boston Book Festival