The author attempts to extend the parameters of translation theory to encompass a consideration of ideology and history. She focuses on the translation of theatrical texts in Quebec during 1968-1988, a period marked by the search for a national identity in an effort to counteract the influence of the dominant English culture in Canada and of the colonial legacy of the European French. Brisset shows that this search was especially apparent in the developing Québécois drama. Drama affords a uniquely immediate link with the collective consciousness, a link that was strengthened during this period by the rise of social realist theatre in Quebec. Brisset says that translations, like original works, are subject to the discursive underpinnings that govern what is admissible or 'sayable' within the target society. A society’s discursive constraints affect both the choice of foreign texts for translation and the changes brought about by translation, the conditions by which the foreign text is assimilated.