Writing Forward Translation, Performance, Creativity

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 - Mª Carmen África 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: tTanslation 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

Biography

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.

“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 Honoré de Balzac