Cover not available

Article published In: Translation in the Theatre
Edited by Cristina Marinetti
[Target 25:3] 2013
► pp. 343–364

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Surtitles take the stage in Franco-Canadian theatre

 | University of Alberta | Translated from the French by Richard Lebeau
Published online: 11 October 2013
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.25.3.03lad
Faced with the need to expand their audience, small Franco-Canadian theatre companies are experimenting with various on-stage translative strategies, such as surtitles, to reach audiences with diverse linguistic and cultural profiles. Not only do they explore their bilingualism in plays that incorporate Canada’s two official languages, they enhance the bilingual aesthetics of the original play with the use of surtitles. In addition to conventional surtitles translating the source text delivered orally on stage, creative surtitles transmit new messages and thus multiply the possible readings generated by the performance. Thus, translation achieves a certain autonomy within the theatre production and, in doing so, redefines its function while challenging the existing theoretical models applied to the translation of dramatic texts.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.Theatre languages and translation
  • 2.Hybrid vernacular languages
  • 3.Perceptions of bilingualism
  • 4.Translating bilingual plays
  • 5.Textual and performative aspects in surtitling
  • 6.Creative surtitles
  • 7.Theoretical considerations
  • 8.Intercultural aesthetics
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (36)
References
Auger, Roger. 2007. “Je m'en vais à Régina.” In Suite manitobaine, 17–109. Saint Boniface, MB: Les éditions du Blé.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bassnett-McGuire, Susan. 1985. “Ways through the Labyrinth, Strategies and Methods for Translating Theatre Texts.” In The Manipulation of Literature, Studies in Literary Translation, ed. by Theo Hermans, 87–102. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1979. La distinction: critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Minuit.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Kenneth. 2010. Cow-boy poétré. Partial French translation by Laurier Gareau. Saint Boniface, MB: éditions du blé.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carlson, Marvin. 2006. Speaking in Tongues: Language at Play in the Theatre. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Casanova, Pascale. 1999. La république mondiale des lettres. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De la Chenelière, évelyne. 2003. Au bout du fil; Bashir Lazhar. Paris: éditions Théâtrales.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008a. Bashir Lazhar. English translation by Morwyn Brebner. Unpublished manuscript. Toronto: Tarragon Theatre.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008b. Bashir Lazhar. Unpublished English surtitles by Shavaun Liss and Louise Ladouceur. Edmonton: Théâtre au Pluriel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dewolf, Linda. 2003. “La place du surtitrage comme mode de traduction et vecteur d’échange culturel pour les arts de la scène.” Recherches théâtrales au Canada 241 (1–2): 92–108.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gobard, Henri. 1976. L'aliénation linguistique: analyse tétraglossique. Paris: Flammarion.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Godbout, Jacques. 1976. “Avant-propos.” Foreword to Je m'en vais à Régina by Roger Auger, IX1–XI1. Montreal: Leméac.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Griesel, Yvonne. 2005. “Surtitles and Translation towards an Integrative View of Theatre Translation.” In Challenges of Multidimensional Translation. Proceedings of the Marie Curie Euroconferences MuTra: Challenges of Multidimensional Translation—Saarbrücken 2–6 May 2005. Available at [URL] (Accessed June 2011).
Harel, Simon. 1989. Le voleur de parcours: Identité et cosmopolitisme dans la littérature québécoise contemporaine. Longueuil, QC: Préambule.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heller, Monica, and Normand Labrie (eds). 2003. Discours et identité: la francité canadienne entre modernité et mondialisation. Fernelmont, BE: éditions modulaires européennes.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage Canada. 2012. “National Anthem: O Canada.” Available at [URL] (Accessed July 2012).
Ladouceur, Louise. 2005. Making the Scene: la traduction du théâtre d'une langue officielle à l'autre au Canada. Quebec City, QC: Nota bene.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “La parole bilingue des minorités francophones de l’Ouest sur les scènes canadiennes.” In Authenticity and Legitimacy in Minority Theatre: Constructing Identity, ed. by Patrice Brasseur, and Madelena Gonzalez, 197–212. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Dramatic Licence: Translating Theatre from One Official Language to the Other in Canada. Translated by Richard Lebeau. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Exploring a Bilingual Aesthetics through Translation in Performance.” In Translation in Theatre and Performance, ed. by Paola Ambrosi, Silvia Bigliazzi, and Peter Kofler, 111–129. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ladouceur, Louise, and Nicole Nolette. 2010. “Cow-boy poétré: A Bilingual Performance for a Unilingual Audience.” In Staging and Performing Translation: Text and Theatre Practice, ed. by Roger Baines, Cristina Marinetti, and Manuela Perteghella, 155–171. Manchester: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ladouceur, Louise, and Shavaun Liss. 2011. “Identité bilingue et surtitres ludiques dans les théâtres francophones de l’Ouest canadien.” Francophonies d’Amérique 321: 171–186.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Larose, Karim. 2004. La langue de papier. Spéculations linguistiques au Québec. Montréal: Les presses de l’Université de Montréal.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Léveillé, Roger. 2005. Parade ou les autres. Saint Boniface, MB: Les éditions du Blé.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prescott, Marc. 2001. Big; Bullshit; Sex, Lies et les Franco-Manitobains. Saint Boniface, MB: Les éditions du Blé.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009a. Sex, Lies et les Franco-Manitobains. Unpublished revised manuscript version, October 2009. Produced by Les Chiens de soleil at Collègue universitaire de Saint Boniface, Saint Boniface, October 28–31, 2009, and by Théâtre au pluriel at Campus Saint-Jean, University of Alberta, Edmonton, November 5–6, 2009.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009b. Sex, Lies et les Franco-Manitobains. Unpublished English surtitles by Shavaun Liss and Louise Ladouceur. Produced at Théâtre au Pluriel, Campus Saint-Jean, University of Alberta, Edmonton, November 5–6, 2009.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rivers, Bryan. 2007. “Roger Auger, fondateur du théâtre moderne franco-manitobain.” Foreword to Suite manitobaine by Roger Auger, 7–15. Saint Boniface, MB: Les éditions du Blé.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sommer, Doris. 2004. Bilingual Aesthetics: A New Sentimental Education. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Statistics Canada. 2006a. “2006 Census: Population by Knowledge of Official Language, by Province and Territory.” Available at [URL] (Accessed December 2009).
. 2006b. “2006 Census: The Evolving Linguistic Portrait, 2006 Census: Highlights.” Available at [URL] (Accessed July 2012).
. 2006c. “2006 Census: The Evolving Linguistic Portrait, 2006 Census: The Proportion of Francophones and of French Continue to Decline.” Available at [URL] (Accessed July 2012).
Venuti, Lawrence. 1995. The Translator's Invisibility: A History of Translation. London: Routledge.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wren, Jacob. 2011. En français comme en anglais, It's Easy to Criticize. Digital disk of bilingual “free adaptation of Jacob Wren's play”. Produced at National Theatre School of Canada, Montreal, October 25–30, 2011.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Nolette, Nicole
2022. Surtitling and the new networks of theatre translation in Toronto. Translation Studies 15:3 ► pp. 306 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Bo & Yuanyi Ma
2019. The Recreation of Pock-Mark Liu and Wang Lifa in English Translations of Teahouse: A Systemic Functional Analysis of Mood Choices. In Discourses of Southeast Asia [The M.A.K. Halliday Library Functional Linguistics Series, ], ► pp. 189 ff. DOI logo
Marinetti, Cristina
2018. Theatre as a ‘translation zone’: multilingualism, identity and the performing body in the work ofTeatro delle Albe. The Translator 24:2 ► pp. 128 ff. DOI logo
Ladouceur, Louise
2015. Le bilinguisme dans les répertoires dramatiques franco-canadiens de l’Ouest : perspectives identitaires et esthétiques. Revue de l’Université de Moncton 44:2 ► pp. 103 ff. DOI logo
Ladouceur, Louise
2017. De l’emploi des surtitres anglais dans les théâtres franco-canadiens : bénéfice et préjudice. TTR 28:1-2 ► pp. 239 ff. DOI logo
Pardo, Betlem Soler & Duncan Wheeler
2015. Translation and didactics in the language classroom: the preparation and dissemination of a dual-language critical edition of José Luis Alonso de Santos’Bajarse al moro/Going down to Morocco. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 9:1 ► pp. 30 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue