Theatre Semiotics And Theatre Translation

Theatre translation is an important type of literary translation. However a question is always challenging the translator:should theatre translation be reader-oriented or performance-oriented owing to the dualistic nature of theatre. It never has gone into the consistency since the theatre translation appeared. The theatre semiotics theory belongs to the embranchment of linguistics of structuralism and the externalism of literary criticism, which began in the early of 20th century. The establishment of the theatre semiotics was a revolution to the theatre criticism both in text and performance. It almost changed the conventional approach and methodology on the theatre studies, which produced a great significance in both theatre circle and academic circle.Therefore by applying theatre semiotics theory, this thesis attempts to analyze the specific applications in two Chinese versions of Death of a Salesman, so as to make a response to the question mentioned above and to arouse the attention of people in this field.Firstly the theory foundation of this thesis should be illustrated. According to theatre semiotics theory; theatre signs should be divided into text signs and performance signs. The text signs are the literary signs (i.e., the playbook) including the lines and the illustrative words. The performance signs are the image signs transmitted by the text signs when the theatre is played. The performance signs are coded into thirteen subsystems within two systems according to the classification of Kozwan. Though the theatre semiotics theory is usually used as a tool to direct the performance, it is reasonable for us to explore the theatre translation with it because literary text lays the foundation of this theory.Secondly the approach of this thesis can be used that it attempts to explore the theatre translation through applying the signifying process between the text signs and performance signs in order to got out from under in translating theatre. Meanwhile it will make the theatre semiotics a reasonable theory to the theatre translation from the possibility into reality.Finally the thesis concludes the advantageous of the theatre semiotics theory for the theatre translation, which sets it free from problem of the dualistic nature of the theatre, and confirms the direction of the development and applied areas in the future.There are four chapters in this thesis:1) the introduction to the thesis,2) the overview of theatre semiotics theory,3) the applications of thirteen systems of theatre signs with the comparison of two Chinese versions of Death of a Salesman,4) the conclusion. Through the practical analysis of examples within thirteen systems of theatre signs, we have the confidence that the theatre semiotics theory will become one of critical approaches in theatre translation in the near future.