Ritradurre le avventure africane del reporter con il ciuffo: "Tintin au Congo" in italiano

The article reconstructs the complex editorial and translation history of The Adventures of Tintin in Italy from the 1950s to the present day, with a particular focus on the complete retranslation of the albums carried out in 2011 by Giovanni Zucca for Rizzoli-Lizard. After investigating the reasons for the recent retranslation and analyzing various paratextual aspects, the essay delves into the retranslation of the controversial Tintin in the Congo, for which Hergé was accused of racism. The textual analysis of selected speech balloons from both Beppe Borselli’s early translation and the second one aims to demonstrate how the retranslation choices were not driven by ideological concerns but rather by the intention or restoring the linguistically playful dimension of Hergé’s text through sound. This approach is also a product of the period in which the retranslation was undertaken (2008-2011), a time when the debate on Cancel Culture and Woke Culture had not yet begun in Italy.