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This paper examines naming variation in several Italian translations of Erich Kastner's novel Das doppelte Lottchen. Starting from the analysis of proper names and naming processes in Kästner's book, this study aims to show how the onomastic dissimilarity occurring in its different Italian versions has to do not only with the ever shifting translation methods and techniques in the way of adapting names to the target culture, but mostly with the constantly renewed critical (and editorial) approach to the novel over the years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike other forms of colonization, the Italian conquest of Africa has traditionally been depicted as more benevolent than other European colonial enterprises, with Italian invaders described as 'brava gente'. On the contrary, more detailed research has discovered that Italy perpetrated the same violence and oppression as other European countries, in particular during the 'Fascist African Adventure', and that there has been a deliberate censorship of its most deleterious aspects. In this respect, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness has been approached by Italian intellectuals, writers, and movie directors as a filter through which it was possible to reconsider in more explicit terms the relationship between Italy and its former African colonies. This is the case of Ettore Scola's movie Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare l'amico misteriosamente scomparso in Africa? (1968), a free adaptation of Heart of Darkness that reconfigured through the language of 'commedia all'italiana' Conrad's reflections on colonial exploitation and brutality. Finally, Marco Consentino, Domenico Dodaro and Luigi Panella's historical novel I fantasmi dell'impero (2017) uses Heart of Darkness as a framework within which to dramatise Italian brutality and political corruption in Ethiopia during the Fascist regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]