Solid and Living: The Italian Woolf Renaissance

This chapter examines the renewed attention that Virginia Woolf has been enjoying in Italy since her publication rights expired in 2011 and how such attention has kept growing together with Woolf’s appeal, consolidating her as a cultural icon in Italy. The study starts with an introduction to the early history of the publication of Woolf in Italy, mainly thorough documents held at the historical archive of Mondadori, the publisher who owned the Italian translation rights of the writer since 1944. When the rights first expired in 1991, a wave of retranslations appeared on the Italian marketplace, but the duration of the publication rights was soon extended to 70 years from the death of the author. Once Woolf’s works were finally in the public domain, their publication in Italy appeared in three venues: retranslations of her most important novels by leading publishers, translations of works that had never been translated before, and refined editions of her books by small, independent publishers. All of this ushered an ‘Italian Woolf Renaissance’. Including interviews with translators and publishers of Woolf’s works, and analysing their reception in the Italian cultural network through websites and social media, this chapter elucidates the reasons behind this ‘Woolf Renaissance’.

The Spanish Translation of Les Leçons de chimie élémentaire: On the Legal Status of Translation and its Various Values

Throughout the nineteenth century, European booksellers and publishers, mostly from France, England, Germany and Spain, produced textual materials in Europe and introduced them into Mexico and other Latin American countries. These transatlantic interchanges unfolded against the backdrop of the emergence of the international legal system to protect translation rights and required the involvement of a complex network of agents who carried with them publishing, translating and negotiating practices, in addition to books, pamphlets, prints and other goods. Tracing the trajectories of translated books and the socio-cultural, economic and legal forces shaping them, this article examines the legal battle over the translation and publishing rights of Les Leçons de chimie élémentaire, a chemistry book authored by Jean Girardin and translated and published in Spanish by Jean-Frédéric Rosa. Drawing on a socio-historical approach to translation, I argue that the arguments presented by both parties are indicative of the uncertainty surrounding the legal status of translated texts and of the different values then attributed to translation.

Rights

The trade in subsidiary rights can be of significant importance to the publishing process, with rights sales providing vital additional revenue for authors and publishers alike; in many cases, potential rights sales can influence the overall publishing decision. The acquisition of rights can extend the range of a commissioned list. This chapter sets out to examine the importance of securing a suitable rights ‘package’ from the author (or via the author’s agent) in order to maximize the exploitation of intellectual property rights through the active exploitation of appropriate rights categories such as same-language territorial rights, translation rights, serial rights, audio rights, dramatization rights, and electronic rights. In addition, it touches on areas of rights which are reactive (the granting of permissions) or in effect contracted out (collective secondary licensing via a mandate to the national Collective Management Organization). It also covers key issues on the acquisition of rights.