Courses

Theatre Translation and Creative Writing: Theatre Translation. Theory and Practice.

Course details

This course seeks to familiarize postgraduate students with the basic principles of
translation theory, as they are specialized in theatrical translation, as a special form of
transcription, and as they are applied to its study and production. The aim of the course
is thus twofold: to provide students with tools for the study and evaluation of theatrical
translations, but also to encourage them to develop their creativity by exploring the
field of theatrical translation themselves. The history of theatrical translation is briefly
examined and then its theory, its basic research approaches (text-centered and
performance-centered) and the newer perspectives developed in the context of
translational studies, while issues related to translation in multilingual and multicultural
theatre are also touched upon. The course is a combination of theory and practice, as a
variety of examples of theatrical translation, interlingual, intralingual and
intersemiotics, direct and mediated, are studied in the light of theory, with reference to
a continuum that extends from translation and rendering to adaptation and intertextual
transcription. The examples are examined on multiple levels based on the purpose of
the translation and seek to highlight the complex nature of theatrical translation, given
the multi-semiotic and intermedial nature of theatre and the diverse landscape of
contemporary theatre production.