March Elisa Segnini (University of Glasgow)

This talk focuses on the Italian-Cuban writer Alba de Céspedes (1911- 1997) and her comparative method, which culminates in a collection of poems about the 1968 Parisian insurrection: Chansons des filles de mai (1968). Written in French, the poems feature two comparisons which connect historical events across time and space, establishing a relationship between the 1968 Parisian insurrection, the Resistance movement against fascism, and the 1959 Cuban Revolution. These comparisons drive De Céspedes desire for translation, as she identifies in Italy and Cuba ideal target readerships. The self- translation of the poems into Italian involves substantial rewriting, but does not invalidate the comparative nature of the poems. However, the translation into Spanish, which involves the collaboration of a Cuban literary dissent, challenges the Cuban narrative of history and leads to author to the realisation that the comparisons underpinning the poems were unidirectional, that is, valid from the European point of view only.