Restoration as "Translation": Teaching the Discipline in a Multicultural Classroom

Abstract

The term “translate”, from the Latin traducĕre (trans and ducere), refers to the gesture of carrying, transferring something from one side to the other. The ancient Romans used the term vertere to define a particular practice of translating: «[…] A type of translation whose cultural paradigm was constituted by radical mutation and metamorphosis. Translating in the sense of vertere presupposes that the sentence - and often also the person who pronounces it - change the identity to become others» (Bettini 2012, p. XV). These etymological references suggest developing some reflections on the Restoration discipline’s teaching in the multicultural class. Those directly involved in these activities are well aware that they will inevitably be confronted with the "other" and "elsewhere": a rich mix of different origins, educational backgrounds and cultural memories. The contribution intends to reflect on the implications of teaching the discipline in the multicultural classroom, on the difficulties, on the contents, on the communication methods, on the strategies to be implemented for effective teaching and on the intersections between teaching and research. The ability to trigger a rich and constructive debate, but also the role to which we are called as "facilitators" within learning that is not notionism but first of all based on sharing an approach, force us to reflect on a crucial issue: what is the cultural transmission that goes through translation?