Аннотация:Prompted by a reading of two novels by contemporary Italian writer Francesca Duranti, La casa sul lago della luna (1984) and Sogni mancini (1997), in which the experiences of translators and writer-translators are explored in depth, this paper investigates fictional treatments of the translator by a number of contemporary writers from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The paper considers how fiction writers place the translator centre stage, and emphasise both the function of translation as a form of intercultural communication and the alterity implicit in the concept of translation. It is argued that representations of translators in contemporary fiction reflect crucial issues of (cultural) identity in a globalised society, in which displacement is a widespread phenomenon.
