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Research Interests
Sanskrit literature; Greek and Latin literature; erotic literature; Reception Studies and Classical Receptions; Comparative Literature and World Literature; Translation Studies; Book History; History of Indology.
Profile
Maddalena is a Research Fellow working on the Leverhulme-funded project 鈥淐omparative Classics: Greece, Rome, India鈥�. Before joining this research project, she taught Sanskrit at SOAS 鈥� where she completed her PhD in 2018 鈥� and at the British Museum; she also taught Classical Greek and Latin at City Lit in London. She is currently completing a monograph on the modern reception of Sanskrit erotic poetry.
Covering a kaleidoscope of sources that range from 19th-century Latin translations-cum-commentaries to early 20th-century risqu茅 editions in English, Italian and French, her book is the first study to map the modern reception of the three most popular collections of Sanskrit love lyrics 鈥� Bilhana鈥檚 Fifty Verses of a Thief (Caurapa帽c膩艣ik膩, late 11th-early 12th century), Amaru鈥檚 Hundred Verses (Amaru艣ataka, 7th century?) and Bhart峁沨ari鈥檚 Hundred Verses on Love (艢峁涐箙g膩ra艣ataka, 5th/7th century?). The trajectories followed by the modern translations and pseudo-translations of these collections often intersect, and in so doing create a colourful tapestry populated by Prussian philologists, Victorian readers, and risk-taking publishing houses in the Paris of the Belle 脡poque, in Roaring-Twenties London and New York, and in early-Fascist Italy. The uninterrupted success enjoyed by translations of Sanskrit erotic verses between 1830 and 1930 鈥� the chronological limits of this book 鈥� attests to an interest in the 鈥榚xotic erotic鈥� that coexisted with an evolving discourse on sexuality and with varying levels of censorship.
One of the key themes that the book explores is the problematic comparison of Sanskrit poetry with its Greek and Latin counterparts. Not only were Sanskrit erotic poems translated into Latin (the lingua franca of positivist philology, but also the language used in popular publications to translate/obfuscate the more graphic passages), they were interpreted and commented upon as if they had been part of the same intertextual field as the Graeco-Roman classics. To the Sanskrit-Graeco-Roman intertextual field were added the literatures of other 鈥楨astern/Oriental鈥� or 鈥楢sian鈥� peoples, who provided further repertoires of imagery and tropes that could be compared with the Sanskrit materials. These deeply intertextual comparative exercises often informed translation practices, so that many modern versions of Sanskrit erotic poems bear traces of creative 鈥榗ontamination鈥� with other literary cultures. At the far end of the spectrum of cross-cultural contamination stand 鈥榝aux Sanskrit鈥� erotic verses that 鈥� just like contemporary translations of the Arabian Nights 鈥� were more Western in origin than they purported to be.
Edward Powys Mathers (1892鈥�1939) 鈥� alias Torquemada, recently a TikTok sensation as the author of the murder mystery puzzle Cain鈥檚 Jawbone 鈥� is one of the many Orientalist translators that populate Maddalena鈥檚 book. His 鈥榯ranslation鈥� of the Caurapa帽c膩艣ik膩 as 鈥淏lack Marigolds鈥� (1919) is discussed in Maddalena's paper 鈥淓astern Poetry by Western Poets鈥� (Comparative Critical Studies 17 (2), 2020). The other philologists-translators and poets-translators Maddalena has worked on are: Antoine-L茅onard de Ch茅zy (1773鈥�1832), author of the pseudonymously published Anthologie 茅rotique d'Amarou (1831); Peter von Bohlen (1796鈥�1840), editor, translator and commentator of Bhartriharis sententiae et carmen quod Chauri nomine circumfertur eroticum (1833); Hippolyte Fauche (1797鈥�1869), author of the French translations Bhartrihari et Tchaaura, ou la Pantcha莽ika du second et les Sentences 茅rotiques, morales et asc茅tiques du premier (1852); Gopinath Purohit (died 1935), author of the Hindi and English translations-cum-commentaries The N墨ti艣ataka, 艢ri峁単膩ra艣ataka and Vair膩gya艣ataka of Bhartrihari (1896); Edwin Arnold (1832鈥�1904), author of the verse translation The Chaurapanch芒sika: An Indian Love-lament (1896); Franz Toussaint (1879-1955), author of the second-hand versions and pseudo-translations contained in L鈥檃mour fard茅 (1913 and 1927); Giuseppe de Lorenzo (1871鈥�1957), author of the Italian translation and commentary Il canto del ladro d鈥檃more: Caur墨suratapa帽c膩艣ik膩 (1925); Ugo Ghiron (1876-1952), author of the second-hand translations in Canti d鈥檃more indiani (1930); and Umberto Norsa (1866鈥�1943), author of the translations La centuria [Amaru艣ataka] (1923) and Le tre centurie di Bhart峁沨ari (1933).
Publications
Journal Articles and Reviews
Italia, M. (2020). 鈥淓astern Poetry by Western Poets: Powys Mathers鈥� 鈥楾ranslations鈥� of Sanskrit Erotic Lyrics.鈥� In Comparative Critical Studies 17 (2): 205鈥�224.
Italia, M. (2018). 鈥淭ranslation Immoral? Contamination, Hybridity, and Vociferous Silences in Early Twentieth-Century Translations of Sanskrit Erotic Poetry.鈥� In Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry 5 (1): 7-21.
Book review of Yigal Bronner, Extreme Poetry: The South Asian Movement of Simultaneous Narration, published in Pandanus 鈥�11: Nature in Literature, Art, Myth and Ritual, Volume 5, Issue 1, 2011, pp. 152-6.
Other publications
鈥淓astern Love, Western Beloveds: Sanskrit Heroines in a Frontier Territory鈥�, published in Espacio Fronterizo 鈥� Espace鈥揊ronti猫re 鈥� Borderland, 1 June 2021. ()
鈥淯ntranslatable word: That feeling of living vicariously through fictional lovers鈥�, published in Clove, 12 May 2020.
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