Les mémoires des autres : les traductions italiennes des textes de mémoire allemands et anglo-américains sur la Seconde Guerre mondiale (1945-1968)

The essay analyzes the translations in Italy of Anglo-American and West German texts on World War II in the first twenty years of the post-war period (1945-1968): it is a corpus of over two hundred titles, including memoirs, collections of testimonies, and works of non-fiction. The first part of the article analyzes the different types of texts, their characteristics, and the main themes that emerge, highlighting the profound differences but also some complementarities between Anglo-Saxon and German memoirs. Among the most relevant aspects, on the one hand, the strength and pervasiveness of the Allied narrative of the just war emerge, and on the other hand, the unexpected consistency of a German counterpoint, mournful and problematic but at the same time strongly self-absolving. The second part of the essay attempts to provide some initial indications regarding the reception of these texts in Italy, analyzing the publishers and their policies, the reviews in newspapers, the (few) available data on print runs and reprints, and the paratextual elements that characterized the Italian editions. Although in a provisional manner, some trends that characterize the reception of these cultural products are identified : the remarkable success enjoyed by some of them – primarily the memoirs of soldiers and non-commissioned officers, with the notable exception of Churchill’s memoirs, which were both bestsellers and long-sellers of the time ; a certain separation between the reception by high culture and that by popular culture ; and the dual relationship between the narratives conveyed by these memoirs and those produced in Italy : when the former confirmed and reinforced the latter, they were easily and quickly accepted, while in cases where conflicts arose (such as the “foreign” judgment on the Resistance or the behavior of Italians in the war), the reception was more contrasting and, in certain cases, hindered.