Le traduzioni e la Cancel Culture: L’ultima e forse finale avventura di Tom Sawyer

This article opens with a reflection on the impact of Cancel Culture on the reception and circulation of literary texts, using The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as a case study. It explores how such cultural dynamics may shift the text’s status—from a vibrant work of children's literature to a mere historical document employed primarily in academic discussions within the social sciences. The core of the study consists of a comparative analysis of selected Italian translations of Twain’s novel. Anchored in Antoine Berman’s theoretical framework—particularly his notion of "deforming tendencies," such as the destruction or exoticization of vernacular networks and linguistic registers—the article investigates the translators’ strategies in rendering the stylistic and linguistic complexity of the source text. Special attention is given to how each translation negotiates Twain’s use of oral, informal, and rhythmically cadenced language, marked by idiomatic expressions, local similes and metaphors, and intentional deviations from standard grammar.