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Article In: Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts: Online-First Articles

Translating Shakespeare into sign language

Challenges, opportunities, and cultural awareness

 | University of Sannio
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Abstract
Shakespeare is widely recognised as a literary icon, mainly due to his masterful use of the English language and his ability to explore universal themes that transcend space and time. His plays have been translated into numerous languages over the centuries, reflecting their enormous appeal to diverse audiences. International staging mainly involves adapting texts for different languages and cultures, a complex process that demands linguistic, theatrical, and cultural expertise (Brodie, Geraldine. 2022. “Translating for the Theatre.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Translation, ed. by Kirsten Malmkjær, 423–439. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 423).
What happens when translating between two vastly different languages, such as English and a sign language? This paper addresses this question by examining the translation of two Shakespearean plays into sign language, specifically Twelfth Night into American Sign Language (ASL) and Macbeth into British Sign Language (BSL). These adaptations aim to make Shakespeare accessible to Deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences by translating the essence of the stories into a visual language. The study highlights the challenges and opportunities of adapting classical theatre for Deaf audiences, demonstrating how translation can bridge cultural divides. However, translating Shakespeare into sign language requires careful consideration of linguistic and cultural differences (Bencie, Woll. 2003. “Modality, Universality, and the Similarities Among Sign Languages: An Exploration.” In Linguistic Society of America, 79 (2): 357–373.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Snyder, Lyndsay D. 2009. Sawing the air thus: American Sign Language translations of Shakespeare and the echoes of rhetorical gesture, Ph.D. dissertation. University of Maryland.).
This paper aims to show how sign language translation promotes cultural exchange and accessibility for audiences who are often marginalised in the arts (Bradbury, Jill Marie. 2022. “Audiences, American Sign Language, and Deafness in Shakespeare Performance.” Shakespeare Bulletin, 40 (1): 45–67. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Neves, Josélia. 2022. “Translation and accessibility: The translation of everyday things.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Methodology, ed. by Federico Zanettin, and Christopher Rundle, 441–456. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Orero, Pilar. 2022. “Translation, accessibility and minorities.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Media, ed. by Esperança Bielsa, 384–399. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and to shed light on the importance of involving Deaf artists and scholars in the translation process to ensure culturally sensitive and accurate translations (Pollard 2002; Bauman, H. Dirksen L. 2008. “Introduction: Listening to Deaf Studies.” In Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking, ed. by H. Dirksen L. Bauman, 1–34. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Overall, this paper contributes to the field of theatre translation, a “burgeoning” area of Translation Studies (TS) (Serón Ordóñez, Imaculada. 2014. “Theatre Translation Studies: An overview of a burgeoning field (Part I: Up to the early 2000s).” Status Quaestionis, 2 (5). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), and clarifies the significant role of translation in promoting cross-cultural communication.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Visual and “Cinematic” features of Sign Languages
  • 3.Translating Shakespeare into Sign Language
    • 3.1Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night into ASL
    • 3.2Accessibility and beyond: The “Signing Shakespeare project”
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Author queries
  • References
References (49)
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