Franz Kafka and the "Semikolon": The use of semicolons in "Die Verwandlung" and in some of its Italian translations

Abstract

The paper examines the peculiar use of the semicolon in Franz Kafka’s short story Die Verwandlung. Starting from brief considerations, which compare the punctuation practices in German and Italian with regard to this sign, a quantitative and qualitative analysis will be conducted on Kafka’s original, in an attempt to define the exact functions of the semicolon with respect to the other punctuation marks, especially the colon. Subsequently, the deformations that the semicolon’s (and colon’s) use undergoes in seven Italian versions of the classic published in the 20th and early 21st centuries will be recorded (again on a quantitative and qualitative level), in an attempt to quantify, on the one hand, the pressure exerted by divergent or changing punctuation norms and philosophies and, on the other, the more or less pronounced source-oriented approach of the single Italian translators.