Wednesday, February 25, 2026

2/25 Readings - Kelly Haddad

In Frayn's translation note, it initially stood out to me how resistant Chekov was to his works being translated, and to that end I appreciated Frayn's qualifications. He was familiar with both the language and format of the work, unlike some other translators whose works we have interacted with. Pavis' faithfulness article was an interesting read for me: I never considered that adapting text to performance is essentially a form of translation, and can follow a similar process to literary translation. I am not an avid play-watcher, so most of my experience with this form of translation comes from watching movies adapted from books I've read, leading to the classic debate of which one is better (it is almost always the book). Senelick's lecture reinforced the importance of maintaining the original author's style; this means not just translating from one language to another, but conveying the author's version and experience of that language. Tiang provided a multitude of examples from The Seagull to emphasize his points, which I appreciated. He was easier to follow because of this, and yet again reinforced how laborious translation can be; if just a few lines can be translated so many ways, imagine working on entire plays and novels. 

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Mary Elliot, 3/25 Readings

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