Ithaca College

 Marella Feltrin-Morris (Modern Languages and Literatures) has published the first English translation of “Donna Mimma” (1917) a short story by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936), in North American Review.

 In the story, a Sicilian woman who has worked as a village midwife for thirty-five years suddenly finds herself being replaced by a young, newly-accredited upstart from the northern region of Piedmont. Forced to go to school in Palermo to earn an official diploma in order to compete with this interloper, Donna Mimma returns to the village two years later having acquired scientific terminology and more cosmopolitan manners only to find that, in the meantime, the young midwife has gone the opposite route and embraced some of the local customs, earning even more respect from the villagers. 

The translation also features a translator’s introduction by Feltrin-Morris entitled “How Do You Turn a Fairy into a Witch? And Who Says You Should, Anyway?”

Both the translation and the translator’s introduction are accessible in the Open Space section of North American Review: 

Translation: https://northamericanreview.org/open-space/donna-mimma

Translator’s Introduction: https://northamericanreview.org/open-space/On-Donna-Mimma