“Dove hai imparato a fare queste cose, piccola?” Localizzazione videoludica e Gender Translation Studies: un’analisi della saga di Tomb Raider

After a brief introduction to the gaming industry and the gaming localization industry, and a glimpse of the gender representation issue that in some ways persists to this day in the videogame world, this dissertation considers as its object of inquiry the Italian localization of the acclaimed Tomb Raider saga. Its main aim is to scrutinize the evolution of the titles’ main character, Lara Croft, with the objective of pinning down the gender-related issues that arise in the translation from English into Italian. Since the videogame industry has been marred for decades by what could be considered a serious issue with gender representation, this dissertation highlights the elements of game localization that can be taken into consideration to mitigate this issue. Through a discussion of the topics of fidelity and culturalization, it is argued that by following the disruptive and revolutionary principles theorized by the feminist scholars that started Gender Translation Studies, the translator could contribute to reduce the discriminatory and sexist content that the analysis shows could be, even inadvertently, introduced during the translation process. To this end, the global intent of fidelity towards the translation project and the translator-client relationship would still be maintained, but the translator would be given greater liberty to commit to choices as dictated by a newfound sensitivity towards gender-related issues, with the ever-present assurance that the look and feel of the final product would not be compromised in any way.