Arnold Bennett, Giovanni Verga, David Herbert Lawrence. Transitional realism, translation and dialect

Abstract

This work investigates the relationship between translation, tran- sition and realism in connection with the development of di- alectal forms, the concept of city and travel images in late-nine- teenth-century literary production in Europe, with particular em- phasis on French, English and Italian realist literature. The process of transiting, which entails a mechanism of transformation resulting in innovation and change, is common in translation, realist literature, travel, and dialect as a linguistic break with stan- dard language. If translation is a system of transferring meaning from one set of language signs into another set of language signs, realism in literature is par excellence the concrete manifestation of literary 'interruption' through replacement and transition.