Translating Mannerism : Translator as Dramaturg in Adapting Generic Specifics
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | A translator of drama, when translating for stage rather than page, often has to make choices that anticipate a producer’s decisions regarding adaptations of the given play to intended audiences. These choices include, among other complex strategic decisions, present-day vocabulary and phrases, in order to achieve an equivalent effect on audiences as the intended one of the original, where a period-equivalent translation would hinder understanding. In my recent translation, I encountered a specific kind of such obsoleteness, which called for an updated translation in case the result were to be intended for a production. Translating Exorcism by Eugene O’Neill (1920), I was confronted with a language of his expressionistic stage. The “Oh’s” and “Ah’s” of a suffering young male alcoholic’s soliloquies are markers of period-and genre-specific style that require alterations in case an equivalent effect is to be produced in audiences today. Generally speaking, mannerisms of past genres inevitably grow obsolete and dysfunctional for audiences, who identify them as marks of historical stages of theatrical expression. The intention of this presentation is to open up a discussion on a translator’s role as dramaturg in adapting period generic specifics and mannerisms for audiences today. |
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