Power relations in drama translation

Abstract

Power relations in drama translation operate at all levels of the process: they may be perceived in the relationships between the two cultures involved and between the various participants engaged in the intricate process of translating for the theatre; in the way translation is actually made and understood; in the role given in it to each of the elements (verbal and non‐verbal) which make up the semiotic complex of the drama text; and even in the terminology used to describe the process and the final products. A target theatre text — the reception of which is marked by immediacy and ephemerality — is thus frequently the result of the negotiation between many different participants in the theatre system, participants whose interests do not always coincide (or may even interfere) with the translator's role and work.