The invisibility of the self-translator and its implications: between the nationalist paradigm of monolingualism and neoliberal language ideologies

This article investigates the self-translator’s ‘invisibility’ and its implications in relation to the ideological predominance of the nationalist paradigm of monolingualism and neoliberal language ideologies. Invisibility is interpreted here as the under-representation of the self-translator in peritexts and a lack of public awareness of the fact that a writer undertook self-translation. Building on research in (self-)translation, sociolinguistics, and literary and cultural studies, the article discusses the ways in which self-translators challenge the monolingual ideals of nationhood and neoliberal language ideologies which, simultaneously, render invisible the self-translator and their work in ‘minor’, non-national, or non-native languages. Based on paratexts and relevant contextual elements, the paper outlines the invisibility of twentieth-and twenty-first-century Italian and Polish self-translators in accounts of national literature and qualitatively analyzes the peritexts of self-translated works by Nino De Vita and Czesław Miłosz. The article stresses how the self-translator’s invisibility reinforces the nationalist paradigm of monolingualism and power hierarchies between languages, thus perpetuating social inequalities. It advocates for the visibility of self-translators as agents of sociocultural change, leading to an inclusive, multilingual paradigm and greater social equality.