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Article published In: Im/politeness and Stage Translation
Edited by Maria Sidiropoulou
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 6:1] 2020
► pp. 45–63

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Mask and face

Im/politeness in stage translations of Mourning Becomes Electra

 | National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Published online: 17 February 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00043.bla
Abstract
Im/politeness scholars have highlighted the significance of ideology in the use of im/politeness phenomena, as the very notion of im/politeness presupposes a mental filtering of discourse through preconceptions that already exist in the mind (Terkourafi, Marina. 1999. “Frames for Politeness: A Case Study.” Pragmatics 9 (1): 97–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2001. Politeness in Cypriot Greek: A Frame-Based Approach. PhD diss. University of Cambridge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2005. “Beyond the Micro-Level in Politeness Research.” Journal of Politeness Research 1 (2): 237–262. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Mills, Sara. 2003. Gender and Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; . 2011. Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Kádár, Dániel Zoltán, and Michael Haugh. 2013. Understanding Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The study aims at demonstrating how im/politeness can be manifested in two Greek versions of a dramatic dialogue that has its roots in the ancient theatre, where masks may be thought to undertake functions of face/identity formation in (im)politeness theory. The focus is on Eugene O’Neil’s dramatic trilogy Mourning Becomes Electra (ST O’Neil, E. 1931. Mourning Becomes Electra. Accessed November 28, 2018 [URL]) and on two Greek stage translations of the play that are twenty-one years apart (1986 and 2007). The study adopts both a second/ first order (Grainger, Karen. 2011. “‘First Order’ and ‘Second Order’ Politeness: Institutional and Intercultural Contexts.” In Discursive Approaches to Politeness, 167–188. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, or etic/emic) approach to the data, to gain further insight into how im/politeness plays out in the target versions and also considers in/appropriateness of social behaviour (Locher, Miriam A., and Richard J. Watts. 2008. “Relational Work and Impoliteness: Negotiating Norms of Linguistic Behavior.” In Impoliteness in Language – Studies on its Interplay with Power in Theory and Practice, ed. by Derek Bousfield, and Miriam A. Locher, 77–99. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) to further understanding of aspects of the relational work enacted by the protagonist. The analysis accentuates the significance of the narrative or the point of view of the target versions of the play. Findings highlight the use of different im/politeness strategies in the translated interaction between the siblings, Orin and Lavinia, which affect respondents’ appropriateness judgements. Respondents appreciated a higher tension between intimacy and aggression as manifested in one of the two translations. The study underscores the value of translation data in im/politeness research by drawing attention to intra-cultural variation with regards to the use of im/politeness manifesting a different narrative/point of view (e.g. non/religious, non/allusive to the ancient theatre). Conversely, im/politeness research contributes to translation practice by showing that im/politeness options may exert influence on audience response.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Mask and face
  • 2.The story, theoretical considerations and research methodology
  • 3.Presentation of the empirical data – An etic (second order) approach
    • 3.1Exchange 1: The revelation of the secret
    • 3.2Exchange 2: The murder of the lover
    • 3.3Exchange 3: The metamorphosis
    • 3.4Exchange 4: Post-traumatic guilt
  • 4.Assessment of the empirical data – An emic (first order) approach
  • 5.Discussion of the results
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
  • Texts
References (47)
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Texts
ST O’Neil, E. 1931. Mourning Becomes Electra. Accessed November 28, 2018 [URL]
TTa Ο’Νηλ, Ευγένιος. 1986. Το πένθος ταιριάζει στην Ηλέκτρα: ο γυρισμός – οι κυνηγημένοι – οι στοιχειωμένοι. Μεταφρ. Δέσπω Διαμαντίδου [Mourning suits Electra: the Come Back – The Hunted – The Haunted, translated by Despo Diamantidou] Αθήνα: Δωδώνη.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
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