DOI: 10.17864/1947.301
title: ItalianWoolf project: interviews with cultural mediators of Virginia Woolf in Italy

description: This dataset is part of the outputs of the research project Virginia Woolf and Italian Readers funded from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no 838658. The ItalianWoolf project studied recent editions of Woolf’s works, examining the editorial choices behind these publications. When no archival material was available, as was the case for most contemporary Italian translators and publishers, interviews with publishers, editors-in-chief and translators were a way to acquire information and insights into how Woolf was read and translated. The interviews were filmed and made available on the project website (https://italianwoolf.reading.ac.uk/) and YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBURAFEdj4N9LPBt4EIj2yA). The purpose of these interviews is to understand the editorial strategies behind Woolf’s publication in Italy, and the choices made by translators and by series editors or by independent publishers who decided to invest in the works of Virginia Woolf, in order to map out the cultural and institutional factors that shaped the translation and publication of her work. The dataset contains 7 interviews, and interviewees are: - Laura Lepetit, founder of the first feminist press in Italy, who inaugurated her catalogue with Woolf’s Three Guineas; - Liliana Rampello, scholar, literary critic and essayist who edited several works by Virginia Wool; -Antonio Bibbò, a former Marie Curie fellow who translated The Years for Feltrinelli in 2015; - Mario Fortunato, writer and translator of Woolf’s short stories, of Orlando, and editor of the first Italian edition of Woolf’s diaries; - Alessandra Bocchetti, a renowned feminist and co-founder of the Centro Culturale Virginia Woolf; - Giovanna Granato, translator of the first complete edition of Woolf’s diaries in Italian; -Nadia Fusini, the most renowned Woolf scholar in Italy, who re-translated Woolf’s The Waves to critical acclaim for the renowned Einaudi series Scrittori tradotti da scrittori and was the editor of a new and revised edition of Woolf’s oeuvre for the Mondadori Meridiani series in 1998.
description: - Each interviewee was first contacted to ask if he/she was willing to be interviewed and was asked to sign an informed consent form. - Interviews 1, 2 and 3 with Laura Lepetit, Liliana Rampello and Antonio Bibbò were recorded in person, at the interviewee’s house, in February 2020 and July 2020 respectively. - Interviews 4, 5, 6 and 7 with Mario Fortunato, Alessandra Bocchetti, Giovanna Granatoa and Nadia Fusini were recorded remotely because of the Covid-19 lockdown in January and February 2021. - For the interviews recorded remotely the software StreamYard was used, which in its Pro version offers the possibility to direct the video and record both video in mp4 and audio in mp3. - Each video was then edited using iMovie and English subtitles were added using Aegisubs. The subtitles were then embedded in videos using HandBrake. - For each interview a Word file was made with the Italian transcription of the interview. I used Otranscribe (https://otranscribe.com) to help me with transcription. - Data were collected both in video form (.mp4) and in text form, .docx format. - Detailed information about methods the questions I asked and the answers I got will be available in the book that is due to be published.