Publications

Publication details [#11374]

Walton, Michael J. 2006. Found in translation: Greek drama in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 320 pp.
Publication type
Monograph
Publication language
English
Target language
Person as a subject
Main ISBN
0521861101
Edition info
Also reviewed in: Jeremy Munday (2008). “Translation Studies”. #Years Work Critical and Cultural Theory# 16 (1): 215-234.

Abstract

In considering the practice and theory of translating plays into English from Classical Greek from a theatrical perspective, Found in Translation also addresses wider issues of transferring any piece of theatre from a source into a target language. The history of translating classical tragedy and comedy, here fully investigated for the first time, demonstrates how through the ages translators have, wittingly or unwittingly, appropriated Greek plays and made them reflect socio-political concerns of their own era. Chapters are devoted to topics including verse and prose, mask and non-verbal language, stage directions and subtext and translating the comic. Among the plays discussed as 'case studies' are Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus and Euripides' Medea and Alcestis. The book concludes with a consideration of the boundaries between 'translation' and 'adaptation', followed by an Appendix of every translation of Greek tragedy and comedy into English from the 1550s to the present day.
Source : Publisher information

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