2006 Articles

Theatrical Translation and Film Adaptation: A Practitioner’s View

Ganat, George L.

Translated novels and poems often arrive footnoted with “cultural notes” on words and allusions obscure to the reader’s cultural heritage. But translations of performances – whether of theatrical or cinematic dramas – have no recourse to such devices. The language experienced in performance has all the transience of an eavesdropped conversation, with no opportunity for review or back channeling: the immediacy of the audience’s engagement restricts the range of options available to the translator.

Zatlin’s text Theatrical Translation & Film Adaptation: A Practitioner’s View focuses on the distinctive challenges for translators of these forms, and offers a wealth of practical experience for those willing to take on the task of dramatic translation. An experienced and adept theatrical translator herself, Zatlin focuses the first half of her text on theatrical translation (chapters 1 through 5), followed by a brief bridge chapter on subtitling and dubbing for theatre and film (chapter 6), and finally, a discussion of the film adaptation of theatrical pieces (chapters 7 and 8).