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Article published In: Target
Vol. 8:2 (1996) ► pp.341–364

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What Translators of Plays Think About Their Work

 | Savonlinna School of Translation Studies
Published online: 1 January 1996
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.8.2.08jan
Abstract
This study used loosely conducted interviews to determine how translators of plays see their work, including their position towards the theatre. Different ways of performing the act were reported, along with different attitudes towards the use of background materials. Significant differences were found in what was considered most essential in translating a play: some stressed the need to visualize events during translation while others emphasized the audible aspects of the dialogue. Some translators portrayed themselves as 'invisible mediators', unconcerned with any future performance, whereas others claimed to be working consciously towards one. A third group described their work as 'art' and stressed the need to liberate themselves from the slavery of the source text and find a language of their own.
Résumé
Cette étude analyse des interviews de traducteurs de pièces de théâtre invités à s'exprimer sur leur travail et sur leur attitude envers le théâtre. Elle distingue plusieurs manières de jouer les traductions, et enregistre des points de vue divergents quant à l'usage du matériel de fond. Les avis sont également partagés sur des aspects jugés essentiels: certains traducteurs soulignent la nécessité de visualiser les événements en cours de traduction, d'autres insistent sur les aspects auditifs du dialogue. D'autres traducteurs encore se présentent comme des 'médiateurs invisibles', indifférents à la représentation; ils s'opposent à ceux qui traduisent en vue de celle-ci. Un dernier groupe de traducteurs qualifient leur travail comme un 'art', et revendiquent, en relation avec le désir de trouver leur propre langage, la liberté traductive vis-à-vis du texte-source.
Article outline
  • 1.Interviews as a Research Tool
  • 2.Description of the Questionnaire
  • 3.Who Are the Translators of Plays?
  • 4.The Process of Translating
  • 5.Seeing, Hearing and Reading the Play
  • 6.The Translator—a Servant of Two Masters?
  • 7.Different Attitudes Towards Translating for Theatre
  • 8.The Play as a Script and as a Piece of Literature
  • 10.The Translator and the Theatre
  • Notes
  • References
References (30)
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