What Happened After Nora Left the Doll's House and Came to Brazil: Elfriede Jelinek's Theatre Texts in Brazil and the Translator as Dramaturg

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Published: Jun 2, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2025.17.10
Keywords:
theatre translation, dramaturg, Elfriede Jelinek, Brazil

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Ruth Bohunovsky
Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR)

Abstract

Using the reception of Elfriede Jelinek's theatre texts in Brazil as an example, both in the form of published translations and on stage, this paper explores the dramaturgical function often assumed by translators - especially in contexts where the professional profile of the dramaturg does not exist. To this end, the article draws upon current approaches in the fields of Translation Studies (Morini 2022), as well as Dramaturgy, particularly in non-European contexts (Romanska 2015; Bleeker 2023), and the author's own practical experiences during the translation process of Jelinek's Was geschah, nachdem Nora ihren Mann verlassen hatte oder Stützen der Gesellschaften [What Happened after Nora Left Her Husband or Pillars of Societies]. The paper aims to demonstrate that translators who consciously and competently fulfil their dramaturgical function significantly contribute to the successful reception of theatre texts in other languages and/or cultures, regardless of whether they work for the stage or the page.

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How to Cite
Bohunovsky, R. (2025). What Happened After Nora Left the Doll’s House and Came to Brazil: : Elfriede Jelinek’s Theatre Texts in Brazil and the Translator as Dramaturg. MonTI. Monographs in Translation and Interpreting, (17). https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2025.17.10
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No. 17 (2025): Theatre translation. Performability and reception from intercultural perspectives
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Articles
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Author Biography

Ruth Bohunovsky, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR)

Ruth Bohunovsky studied Latin American Studies at the University of Vienna, obtained her PhD in Translation Studies from the State University of Campinas UNICAMP (São Paulo, Brazil) in 2003, and has been a professor at the Federal University of Paraná UFPR (Curitiba, Brazil) since 2008. She is head of the Austrian Centre at the same institution. Bohunovsky researches and publishes on Austrian literature and drama, theatre translation, and the development of learning materials for German as a foreign language in Brazil. She translated an Austrian literary history (Zeyringer, Gollner, 2012) into Portuguese, which was published by UFPR Press in 2019, and conducts research and publishes on Thomas Bernhard, Elfriede Jelinek, Wolfgang Bauer, Johann Nestroy, and other Austrian authors and playwrights.

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References

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