Mauro Cazzolla holds a PhD in Literary, Linguistic and Cultural Studies from the University of Miami, is a literary translator and specialist of modern and contemporary French and Francophone literature. His dissertation “Annie Ernaux, Édouard Louis, et l’Art de Traduire l’Autosociobiographie" explores the challenges of translating a new literary genre defined as autosociobiography. Autosociobiography is a sub-category of autobiography in which individual experiences become collective. Social class is an essential component of autosociobiography and authors such as Annie Ernaux and Édouard Louis analyze their lives and the lives of their families through social structures and gender. This dissertation demonstrates how these authors are transfuges de classe, who analyze their social determinisms and the possibility of transformation through autosociobiography. Language also plays a decisive role, since it marks a social distinction: used to depict the reality of different social classes, it carries a socio-political weight that needs to be conveyed when it is translated. Through the translation analysis of several autosociobiographies, a personal translation project, and a series of interviews of Ernaux, Louis and their Italian translators, this research shows the stakes of translating an auotosociobiography and provides translators with valuable tools to respect these authors’ literary and socio-political intentions. This dissertation was supported in its final year by the two fellowships: the Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship and the Center for the Humanities Dissertation Fellowship.

Mauro also holds a MA in Interpreting and Translation Studies from the University of Trieste and a BA in Intercultural Mediation from the SSML Carlo Bo in Bari. He also taught courses in translation and French language at the University of Matera and at the Université Paris Nanterre. As a literary translator he has translated contemporary French and Francophone authors such as Maud Ventura, Ouissem Belgacem, Vincent Almendros and Anne Godard.

His main research interests are: modern and contemporary French and Francophone Literature, Sociology and Sociology of Literature, Translation Studies, Queer Studies and Italian modern and contemporary Literature.

Selected Publications

Articles

Annie Ernaux et l’autosociobiographie en traduction, in The French Review.

Translated novels

Addio, vergogna (Italian translation of the autobiography Adieu ma honte), Ouissem Belgacem, ed. Funambolo Editore, 2024, Roma.

Mio Marito (translation of the novel Mon Mari), Maud Ventura, ed. SEM Libri, 2022, Milano.

Un pugno di mosche (translation of the novel Faire Mouche), Vincent Almendros, ed. Enrico Damiani, 2019, Brescia.

Una fortuna sfacciata (translation of the novel Une chance folle), Anne Godard, ed. Enrico Damiani, 2018, Brescia.