The translatological variation in the title of a literary work

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the difficulties in the (Spanish-Italian) translation of certain titles of literary works, which are made up of fixed language structures, from the theoretical perspective of the variation as a translatological resource. In the current market, we come across many translated novel titles that are rather different from the original title. We cannot ignore the fact that in most cases editorial decisions come into play and differ considerably from the titles proposed by the translator himself. However, what happens when the translator comes across a paremiological element and either adds variants or ignores a variation? We are going to show how the Spanish literary tradition foresees the proverb as a stylistic resource when it is used as a title in a large number of works, especially those of a theatrical nature.