Translator and Reviser Training. The White Whales of Italian Academia

Over the last decades, translation studies have experienced an almost uncontrolled expansion. However, in Italy, translation studies have not yet earned a place as an independent field of study, raising some important concerns over the existence and nature of experts in an ‘inexistent’ field and the actual object of training we should deliver to future professional translators. Translator training still struggles with the integration and definition of effective practice and exhibits gaps, especially concerning the almost complete absence of revision in Italian universities’ translation programs, as revealed by the survey conducted. Nonetheless, revision is an officially and institutionally acknowledged feature of professional realities and it is an unaware ever-present figure in educational environments, as instructors revise learners’ works, raising critical questions on whether current translation trainers exhibit highly developed translation and revision competences. Drawing on aggregate data, this contribution aims to shed light on three critical aspects: i) the denial of the disciplinary identity of translation studies as an independent and complex discipline that goes beyond the threshold of the specific languages to which it is inextricably linked by Italian academic categories; ii) the alarming absence of translation revision (or at least, the lack of official references to it) in translator training offered by almost all Italian universities offering a Master’s Degree in Specialized Translation; and iii) the necessity to involve professional translators in translator training, in order to foster professional realism in class and guide learners through the acquisition of specific knowledge and competences that can only be unveiled by professional experience