Translating Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure into Italian. Sex Taboos and Censorship in Translation

Erotic novels have historically challenged taboos, facing censorship dictated by cultural conventions like religion and law (Mudge 2017). This paper examines the Italian translations of John Cleland’s Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748-1749), translated around 38 times since 1918. Cleland’s use of euphemisms and metaphors idealises sexual acts, distancing them from vulgar pornography (Hollander 1963; Spedding and Lambert 2011). Translating sexual content often reinforces societal norms but can also challenge them, with translators navigating censorship and ideological pressures (Santaemilia 2008). This study, framed within retranslation studies, analyses how Fanny Hill was translated in Italy in 1921, 1964, and 2010, revealing manipulations to align with contemporary societal standards. It highlights the evolving treatment of erotic content and the balance between textual fidelity and societal norms over fifty years.