ABSTRACT
Proper nouns, which have a special status within the language system as opposed to common nouns, can be used as characterizing devices in literary texts and so become a meaningful element in the texture of such works. Names can in this way be endowed with an extra semantic load that makes them border on wordplay. The presence of meaningful literary names is likely to cause problems when the text is to be translated, the question being not only whether the transposition of such names in the target language is technically possible, but also to what extent this would be viewed as an appropriate procedure. This paper, which reflects research in progress, explores the issue by analyzing a two-part corpus of texts: the first part consists of twentieth-century Italian translations of English Restoration comedies and the second of Italian translations of Dickens's novels. There are occasional references to other English literary texts from the medieval and Renaissance periods as well. Technical problems of translating proper nouns are taken into consideration, along with other factors which may influence the translator's choices, such as genre, intended audience, cultural tradition and general norms of translation.
