Suggested Books
A selection of books related to translating plays
Moving Target by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2014Moving Target offers a rigorous exploration of the practice of translating for the theatre. The twelve essays in the volume span a range of work from Eastern and Western Europe, Canada and the United States. For the first time, this book draws together existing translation theory with contemporary practice to shed light on a hitherto neglected aspect of the production process. How does the theatre translator mediate between source text, performance text and target audience? What happens when theatre is transposed from one culture to another? What are the obstacles to theatre translation, and what are the opportunities? Central to the debate throughout is the role of the translator in creating not only a linguistic text but also a performance text, as the contributors repeatedly demonstrate an illuminating sensibility to the demands and potential of theatre production. Impacting upon areas of (inter)cultural theory as well as theatre studies and translation studies, the result is a startling revelation of the joys, as well as the frustrations of the dramatic art of the translator for performance.
The Translator on Stage by Call Number: OnlinePublication Date: 2017In today's theatre, productions of plays that originated in another language are frequently distinguished by two characteristics: the authorship of the English text by a well-known local theatre specialist, and the absence of the term 'translation'-generally in favour of 'adaptation' or 'version'. The Translator on Stage investigates the creative processes that bring translated plays to the mainstream stage, exploring the commissioning, translation and development procedures that end with a performed play. The Translator on Stage is informed by specially conducted interviews with the productions' producers, artistic directors, directors, literary managers, playwrights and specialist translators, including Michael Grandage, Rufus Norris, David Eldridge, Juan Mayorga, David Johnston and Mike Poulton. It sheds new light not only on theatrical translation procedures, but also on the place of translation in society today.
Adapting Translation for the Stage by Publication Date: 2017Translating for performance is a difficult - and hotly contested - activity. Adapting Translation for the Stage presents a sustained dialogue between scholars, actors, directors, writers, and those working across these boundaries, exploring common themes and issues encountered when writing, staging, and researching translated works. It is organised into four parts, each reflecting on a theatrical genre where translation is regularly practised: The Role of Translation in Rewriting Naturalist Theatre Adapting Classical Drama at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century Translocating Political Activism in Contemporary Theatre Modernist Narratives of Translation in Performance A range of case studies from the National Theatre's Medea to The Gate Theatre's Dances of Death and Emily Mann's The House of Bernarda Alba shed new light on the creative processes inherent in translating for the theatre.
Translating Shakespeare for the Twenty-First Century by Call Number: Online and printPublication Date: 2004This volume offers a wide range of responses to the theme of Shakespeare and translation as well as Shakespeare in translation. Diversity is ensured both by the authors’ varied academic and cultural backgrounds, and by the different critical standpoints from which they approach their themes – from semiotics to theatre studies, and from gender studies to readings firmly rooted in the practice of translation. Translating Shakespeare for the Twenty-First Century is divided into two complementary sections. The first part deals with the broader insights to be gained from a multilingual and multicultural framework. The second part focuses on Shakespearean translation into the specific language and the culture of Portugal.
India's Shakespeare by Publication Date: 2005"This collection of essays examines the diverse aspects of the more than two hundred years of interaction between Shakespeare and India, a relationship (the longest and most widespread outside of Europe) which is embedded in the contradictions of colonialism - a matrix of simultaneous submission and resistance. For, while the study of Shakespeare was an imperial imposition, the performance of Shakespeare was not. Shakespeare, translated and adapted on the commercial stage during the late nineteenth century, was widely successful; a colonizing master text became, and remains to this day, the most published and performed western author in India."
Performing Greek Comedy by Publication Date: 2011Alan Hughes presents a new complete account of production methods in Greek comedy. The book summarises contemporary research and disputes, on such topics as acting techniques, theatre buildings, masks and costumes, music and the chorus. Evidence is re-interpreted and traditional doctrine overthrown. Comedy is presented as the pan-Hellenic, visual art of theatre, not as Athenian literature. Recent discoveries in visual evidence are used to stimulate significant historical revisions. The author has directly examined 350 vase scenes of comedy in performance and actor-figurines, in 75 collections, from Melbourne to St Petersburg. Their testimony is applied to acting techniques and costumes, and women's participation in comedy and mime. The chapters are arranged by topic, for convenient reference by scholars and students of theatre history, literature, classics and drama. Overall, the book provides a fresh practical insight into this continually developing subject.
QuickStart to call numbers
792.09 — Theatre history 792.0938 Ancient Greek
792.09415 Irish 792.0943 German
792.0948 Scandinavian 792.0944 French
792.0947 Russian 792.0994 Australian
822 — English drama 832 — German drama
822.1 – 822.2 Medieval 839 — Scandinavian drama
822.3 Renaissance 842 — French drama
822.33 Shakespeare’s works 852 — Italian drama
822.4 17th Century 862 — Spanish drama
822.5 18th Century early 872 — Latin dramatic poetry & drama
822.6 18th Century late 882 — Classical Greek drama
822.8 19th Century 895.5 – 895. 9 Asian Literature
895.6 – Includes Japanese plays
A822 – Australian plays