This article brings together perspectives from world literature and translation studies to compare the international reception of two 'glocal' literary cases: Andrea Camilleri's Montalbano books, and Elena Ferrante's tetralogy L'amica geniale. The national and international success of these series raises important questions for scholars of translation studies, multilingualism, world literature and literary markets, and sheds light on the significance of different kinds of multilingualism in fiction and of their treatment in translation. The article addresses the following questions: how do monolingual book markets contain and discipline multilingual fiction? What happens when multilingual fiction travels through translation? How do we explain the present openness of the Anglo-American market to translated fiction with an emphasis on the vernacular? The author argues that while both Camilleri and Ferrante foreground cultural difference and linguistic incommensurability, the way in which they portray the experience of diglossia had an important impact in determining their national and international success as well as the route through which they achieved international visibility.

Through an analysis of the novels written under the pen name Elena Ferrante and of the paratextual elements that surround them, this article examines the portrayal of Naples and its periphery in these narratives, and how the specific geographical and cultural context is rendered and translated for different audiences. It argues that the concealment of the author's identity has enhanced the perceived authenticity of the texts, and that the emphasis on marginal backgrounds and subaltern characters entails a contradiction not dissimilar to the phenomenon that Huggan (2001) describes as 'staged marginality' in the context of postcolonial narratives. Ferrante's cultural specificity can therefore be read as a highly ambivalent discourse that entails both resistance to and complacency with the mechanisms of a global market. Ultimately, the article examines how the stress on dialect influences the process of translation for diverse readerships, showing the relevance of the 'Ferrante project' within world literature debates. Attraverso un'analisi dei romanzi pubblicati sotto lo pseudonimo 'Elena Ferrante' e degli elementi paratestuali che li circondano, il saggio esamina la descrizione di Napoli e della sua periferia ed esplora come la rappresentazione della 'napoletanità' vari nelle edizioni rivolte a lettori appartenenti a diverse comunità linguistico-culturali. L'occultamento dell'identità dell'autrice ha incentivato il senso di autenticità suggerito dalle narrazioni, mentre l'enfasi su ambienti marginali e personaggi subalterni comporta una contraddizione non dissimile dal fenomeno che Huggan (2001) descrive come 'messa in scena della marginalità' nel contesto delle narrazioni postcoloniali. La specificità culturale di Ferrante può perciò essere letta come un discorso ambivalente che comporta sia resistenza che compiacenza nei confronti delle dinamiche del mercato culturale globale. In ultima analisi, il saggio indaga come l'enfasi sul dialetto influenzi il processo di traduzione, dimostrando l'importanza del 'progetto Ferrante' nei dibattiti sulla letteratura mondiale.

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