Terzani in the Steppes: Library, Writings, and Translations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60923/issn.1721-4777/24683Keywords:
Terzani Archive, «Buonanotte, Signor Lenin», Genetic criticism of texts and translations, Orientalism, «Un indovino mi disse»Abstract
This article investigates the role played by Tiziano Terzani in the process of redefining the image of Mongolia and Central Asia. The first section is devoted to a study of the writer’s library. It examines Terzani’s sources on the civilisations of the steppes and his contribution to the circulation in Italy of knowledge – primarily originating in Anglophone and Francophone contexts – about them. The article then turns to an analysis of his travel accounts in the lands of the ancient nomadic empires: Buonanotte, Signor Lenin (1992) and Un indovino mi disse (1995). This analysis is supported by the study of documents held in the Terzani Archive. The essay concludes with a genetic analysis of the French and English translations of these works, thereby accounting for Terzani’s reception in Western Europe. The essay ultimately offers an overall assessment of the Florentine thinker’s relationship with Orientalism.
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