Popularizing, Disseminating and Rewriting for Young Audiences

This volume explores the strategies and the characterising features of popularisation, dissemination and rewriting (Myers, 2003; Hyland 2005; Calsamiglia & Van Dijk, 2004; Garzone, 2006; Gotti, 2013; Mattiello, 2014; Cappelli, 2016) for young audiences in a wide array of texts belonging to different genres and specialised domains. On the basis of previous research in the field (e.g. Bianchi, 2018; Diani, 2015, 2018; Diani & Sezzi, forthc.; Cappelli & Masi, fortch.; Bruti & Manca, 2019; Manca, forthc.), popularisation appears to be a form of “reconceptualisation and recontextualisation of expert discourse that meets the needs, tastes and background encyclopaedia of lay readers” (Cappelli & Masi, fortch., p. 3), which varies considerably depending on the profile of the intended reader, on the degree of specialisation needed (which in turn depends on the genre and its aims) and also across cultures, as different countries prioritise different communicative styles. Starting from these premises, it is the aim of the volume to account for the variation of strategies aimed at increasing accessibility (not only and not necessarily explanation in all its forms, but also techniques to favour involvement, relying on multimodal communication), in relation to the genre, topic, and age of the intended addressees. To the purpose, we consider a wide range of topics – including art, the environment, legal issues, medicine and science – and a range of media and text types – such as websites, museum panels, TED videos, and books. For a richer picture, the volume also includes one paper dealing with the rewriting of a famous contemporary novel for a younger audience by the novelist himself.