Writing Forward
Translation, Performance, Creativity
Published on 18. June 2025
248 pages
978-1-040-35473-5 (ISBN)
Description
This collection of essays by a team of internationally respected researchers at the cutting edge of translation studies was inspired by the idea of "writing forward" as a strategy for theatre translation proposed by David Johnston, the award-winning translator and scholar.
Opening this volume is a conversation between David Johnston and Lawrence Venuti in which they explore a broad range of topics that bear on the translation of theatrical texts for performance. The chapters that follow are grouped into three main parts.
Part I, "Extending translation", contains essays whose respective theoretical emphases test, push, and stretch traditional conceptual boundaries.
Part II, "Translating for theatre", zooms in on various aspects of theatre translation.
Part III, "Translation and creativity", shifts the focus beyond the stage to other forms of artistic expression: poetry, painting, film, and television.
Finally, in the short play Noli me tangere, written especially for this volume, Juan Mayorga reflects on theatre as the art of distance and on the mysteriousness of translation as the art of negotiating that distance.
Thinking about and practicing translation as "writing forward" underscores its perpetual provisionality and hermeneutic openness; its ability to surprise and stimulate but also remind and reassure. By enriching our understanding of translation, performance, and creativity, this volume will no doubt inspire further explorations into their fascinating complexities. Useful and important reading for advanced students and researchers of literature, theatre, culture, and translation.
Opening this volume is a conversation between David Johnston and Lawrence Venuti in which they explore a broad range of topics that bear on the translation of theatrical texts for performance. The chapters that follow are grouped into three main parts.
Part I, "Extending translation", contains essays whose respective theoretical emphases test, push, and stretch traditional conceptual boundaries.
Part II, "Translating for theatre", zooms in on various aspects of theatre translation.
Part III, "Translation and creativity", shifts the focus beyond the stage to other forms of artistic expression: poetry, painting, film, and television.
Finally, in the short play Noli me tangere, written especially for this volume, Juan Mayorga reflects on theatre as the art of distance and on the mysteriousness of translation as the art of negotiating that distance.
Thinking about and practicing translation as "writing forward" underscores its perpetual provisionality and hermeneutic openness; its ability to surprise and stimulate but also remind and reassure. By enriching our understanding of translation, performance, and creativity, this volume will no doubt inspire further explorations into their fascinating complexities. Useful and important reading for advanced students and researchers of literature, theatre, culture, and translation.
Reviews / Votes
"Leaping forward into emotion, these essays evoke the formidable effects of translation in performance. The often lyrical contributions tap into the drama of theatre, at the same time proposing new rhythms of exploration in translation scholarship. This is a beautiful collection, a fitting tribute to the esteemed theatre translator, David Johnston." - Sherry Simon, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada; author or Translation sites (Routledge 2019)"Rarely does academic writing about translation send a shiver down the spine. These essays, inspired by David Johnston's 'writing forward', sing with true duende as they probe the complex process of translating the past for a present that has the life of single and singular performances." - Peter Bush, literary translator, Bristol, UK; recent translation: The Lily in the Valley by Honore de Balzac
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
1 Tables, black and white
File size
16,30 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-040-35473-5 (9781040354735)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Book
06/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
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Book
06/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
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Writing Forward
Translation, Performance, Creativity
Book
05/2025
Routledge
Unfortunately, price unknown
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Persons
Susan Bassnett is a Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Glasgow. She has published widely on aspects of translation, and her ground-breaking book Translation Studies is used across the world. She is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Institute of Linguists, the Academia Europaea, and is President of the British Comparative Literature Association.
Piotr Blumczynski is a Professor of Translation and Intercultural Studies, and Director of the Centre for Translation and Interpreting at Queen's University Belfast. He is the author of Ubiquitous Translation (2016) and Experiencing Translationality (2023), and co-editor of Translating Values (2016) and The Languages of COVID-19 (2022). He is the Editor-in-chief of the journal Translation Studies.
Piotr Blumczynski is a Professor of Translation and Intercultural Studies, and Director of the Centre for Translation and Interpreting at Queen's University Belfast. He is the author of Ubiquitous Translation (2016) and Experiencing Translationality (2023), and co-editor of Translating Values (2016) and The Languages of COVID-19 (2022). He is the Editor-in-chief of the journal Translation Studies.
Content
List of contributors; 1. Writing forward: an introduction - Susan Bassnett and Piotr Blumczynski; 2. A conversation about theatre translation: issues, cases, prospects - David Johnston and Lawrence Venuti; Part I: Extending translation; 3. "Their teeth like fistfuls of hardened snow": the duende, somatic response, and writing forward as forces of translationality - Piotr Blumczynski; 4. Allegro ma non troppo: going out for a walk through musical translationality - M? Carmen Africa Vidal Claramonte; 5. "A low murmur of provisional consent": John Berger and translation - Stephen Kelly; 6. Contracting forward: on residual control right and contractual incompleteness in translation - Sarah Maitland; 7. Translation and machinic ecologies - Michael Cronin; Part II: Translating for theatre; 8. Translating the language of rage - Catherine Boyle; 9. Translation as an itinerary of encounters: translating Bernarda Alba forward - Geraldine Brodie; 10. Theatre translation and language politics: Lin Yutang's translation of Pygmalion - Yangyang Long; 11. Eking out comedy: the ludic in Lady Precious Stream and Dog in the Manger - Lisha Xu; Part III: Translation and creativity'; 12. "Successive grafts upon noble stocks": creative misreading as "writing forward" in intersemiotic translation - Rui Carvalho Homem; 13. "Resonant silence": dissimilation as writing forward in Jonathan Glazer's adaptation of Michel Faber's Under the Skin - Sophie Collins; 14. Tableaux New-Yorkaise: translation and the task of the documentary filmmaker - Des O'Rawe; 15. Translation and the unspoken - Susan Bassnett; 16. Noli me tangere - a play by Juan Mayorga (English translation by Susan Bassnett); Index
