Performability In Theatre Translation

Under the guidance of the performability principle,this thesis translates the first three scenes of the first act of Seven Guitars,a play written by African-American playwright August Wilson.Different from poetry and fiction,drama is not only a literary genre,but also part of the synthetic performing art of theatre.Theories of drama/theatre translation can be divided into two categories: some argue for dramatic translation for readers while the others argue for theatre translation for performance.There have been relatively fewer practices and theoretical researches on drama/theatre translation in China than in the west,not to mention researches on the translation of plays written by African-American authors.To help uninitiated Chinese audiences to better understand and appreciate masterpieces by African American playwrights,especially by August Wilson the leading playwright of contemporary African American drama,I choose to translate Seven Guitars for stage performance targeting mass audience,rather than for publication as dramatic literature targeting learned readers.Susan Basnett’s concept of performability,therefore,serves as the overall principle to guide this translation practice.Under the guidance of this principle,I adopt Ying Ruocheng’s theatre translation strategies to translate Seven Guitars,respectively colloquialization,abbreviation,gesticulation,and individualization.The strategies of colloquialization and abbreviation match the colloquial dialogues and short sentences in Seven Guitars.Gesticulation can bring out the characters’ inner action and the purpose of their utterances.Individualization is suitable for representing the various characters with vivid personalities in the play.Besides,Cao Xinyu emphasizes intelligibility in translating the cultural elements of the original text;this concept,combined with the performability principle,helps me to solve the problem of rendering elements of African American culture in Seven Guitars.The performability principle has proved effective in guiding this practice of drama translation: on the one hand,it can bring out the characteristics of the original text;on the other hand,it can help target audience to understand the text better.Speakability makes the dialogue briefer and more colloquial.Actability enables physical activities and clarifies psychological activities,vivifying the dramatic action.Individuality highlights different dispositions of various characters.Last but not least,with intelligibility I manage to adapt some cultural elements in the original play into the Chinese context,making them more accessible for the Chinese audience.