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Drama Translation and Rewriting —Focusing on Beso de la Mujer Araña—
The Journal of Translation Studies
Abbr :
JTS
2012, 13(4), pp.55-79
DOI : 10.15749/jts.2012.13.4.003
Publisher : The Korean Association for Translation Studies
Research Area : Interpretation and Translation Studies
2012, 13(4), pp.55-79
DOI : 10.15749/jts.2012.13.4.003
Publisher : The Korean Association for Translation Studies
Research Area : Interpretation and Translation Studies
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The present study aims to consider the genre-specific characteristics of drama translation based on the concept of ‘rewriting’. Together with novel and poetry, drama constitutes one of the three main literary genres. Nevertheless, little discussion has been made on this specific genre. As a rule, drama, as well as novel and poetry, is translated by professional translators to be later published. However, theater professionals often translate the script into draft. Such rough drafts serve as STs(Source Texts), which are in turn reproduced into numerous TTs(Target Texts), or namely scripts. Hence, the initial ST-TT1 relation corresponds to the interlingual translation regarded as the translation proper in the established translation studies. However, the relations between script TT1 availed as the new ST, and the scripts, such as TT2, TT3 and so on that are based on the new ST, or TT1, are intralingual rewritings, regarding which in-depth discussions are going on under the name of adaptation in theatre studies, rather than in translation studies. Yet, drama is a genre of significant cultural impact as archetypal content on account of its dialogical texts, which is easily convertible to films, soap operas and musicals, in contrast to narrative texts. Moreover, when overseas dramas are imported, translation becomes more critical than in any other genre as the first script translated acts as the original for other scripts, stressing the need for specific discussions for drama translations. For the above reasons this study analyzes the rewriting of Beso de la Mujer Araña of the argentine writer Manuel Puig, subdividing it into rewriting between different genres, interlingual rewirting and intralingual rewriting to describe its characteristics. This study pretends to focus on drama translation so to describe the genre specifics of a drama translation. As a result of the study, it was found out that in the intergenre rewriting, reduction-oriented rewriting was used for a successful communication, and rubrics are inserted for concrete representation of the nonverbal attributes of drama. In the interlingual rewriting, basically, it has been shown that rewriting is faithful to its original. In this process, frequent translation errors were found in unpublished scripts. In the intra-lingual rewriting, a freer rewriting occurred as directors tried to better define the relations and personalities of the characters. Notably, honorifics changed in this type of rewriting and less errors were detected compared with interlingual rewriting. These rewriting processes have one thing in common: compared with novel translation, drama translation takes into further account the acceptability by the target audience in its target culture for an efficient communication, being represented in a more effective and explicit manner.
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