Traduttore, consulente editoriale, intellettuale: Riccardo Valla e la fantascienza angloamericana in Italia

Translator, publishing consultant and editor, essayist and reviewer, science fiction connoisseur and bibliophile, Riccardo Valla (Turin, 1942-2013) made an exceptional contribution to the Italian reception of English-language science fiction. This study, based on a wealth of unpublished documents, concentrates on his activity as a translator and editor, offering a survey of Valla’s role in opening Italian publishing to new experimentations and forms of critical engagement, e.g. through the circulation of authors such as James Graham Ballard e Ursula K. Le Guin, who, during the 1960s and 1970s, were innovating science fiction and literature at large. Valla’s activities through the years also help in throwing new light on the intellectual profile of the science fiction translator: specialized in a genre with a recognizable set of conventions and literary genealogies, the science fiction translator tends to assume a distinctive publishing and cultural agency.