Liminal translation, translating liminality and translatability as limen: Andrea Camilleri's The Shape of Water

Andrea Camilleri's La forma dell'acqua (1994) is the first of his acclaimed series of Inspector Montalbano novels. Its translation into English in 2002, by the also much acclaimed Stephen Sartarelli, as The Shape of Water, allowed Anglophone readers to access not only an example of high-quality Italian crime fiction but also an example of crime fiction that is about translation. Sartarelli's version will not be analyzed here in terms of its translation qualities, since I am quite unable to speak Italian; it will be analyzed, instead, as a vehicle for a will to translation, or translatability, that is always already present in the original text. Our focus here will be on the choice of the liminal space of the beach to mark the liminal edge of this first novel (the limen of the series). The Shape of Water, as an enigmatic title (paratextual puzzle) and philosophical paradox, will be shown to correspond to the text's wilful vacillation between body (original as exemplary textness) and intentionality (translation as textuality, both re-actualized translated version and virtual otherness or translatability). The ramifications of this (un)marking of liminal territory on the mystery it contains (or fails to contain) will be explored. While there is some truth in Carlo Vennarucci's (2003, s.p.) statement as to the excellent translation of Italianness in The Shape of Water - "Stephen Sartarelli does an admirable job in translating Camilleri's novel from the Italian. While reading The Shape of Water, you always get the sense that this is an Italian mystery about Italian characters and written by a superb Italian author" - it seems equally clear that Italianness (versus both Italian otherness and foreignness) is being signed "in translation", both by Camilleri and his translator, which is to say, problematized and decentred. Translation and translatability will be explored here as reflexive stagings of textuality, which in turn focus our readerly attention on the ironic and reflexive ways that Camilleri and his detective negotiate the shape of water.