Theatre translation: evolutions across time, space and tradition

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Published: Jun 2, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2025.17.01
Keywords:
Theatre translation, Reception, Collaborative translation, Intercultural theatre, Inclusion

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Susan Bassnett
University of Glasgow
Catalina Iliescu-Gheorghiu
University of Alicante

Abstract

This paper aims to anchor current research on translation of and for the theatre in the evolution of modern translatology. Both terms (translation of theatre seems to allude to a finished product, while translation for the theatre encompasses the multimodality and collectivity involved in the process), define the activity through which a play originally written in one language becomes accessible to an audience speaking another language, or even to an audience with diversity, who access through surtitles, signed languages or audio description the same theatrical product. Starting from a series of reflections on the phenomenology of theatre and the role of translation in its evolution, the authors address issues that are less explored by scholarship in order to draw a more inclusive and encompassing map of this dynamic, changing, and unfathomable field.

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Bassnett, S., & Iliescu-Gheorghiu, C. (2025). Theatre translation: evolutions across time, space and tradition. MonTI. Monographs in Translation and Interpreting, (17). https://doi.org/10.6035/MonTI.2025.17.01
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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 Biographies

Susan Bassnett, University of Glasgow

Susan Bassnett is a writer and scholar of comparative literature and translation studies. She is Honorary Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Glasgow, and Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature at the University of Warwick. Author of over 20 books, her Translation Studies (4th edition, 2013), which first appeared in 1980, has remained in print ever since and has become an important international textbook in this field. Her Comparative Literature (1993) has also become internationally renowned and has been translated into several languages. Her most recent books include Tales of Travellers and Translators (Legenda, 2025), with David Johnston Debates in Translation (2025) and with Piotr Blumczynski Writing Forward (2025). She is an elected Fellow of the Academia Europaea, the Institute of Linguists and the Royal Society of Literature. Since 2016 she has been President of the British Comparative Literature Association.

Catalina Iliescu-Gheorghiu, University of Alicante

Professor, University of Alicante. PhD (Relevance theory and theatre translation, 2002), conference interpreter (35-year-career), literary translator (30 titles) and author of 5 books: Introducción a la Interpretación (University of Alicante, several editions, e-book), Traducerea textului dramatic (Institutul European, 2009), Un model polisitemic… (2018), Metodología de análisis traductológico… (Peter Lang, 2022), Relevancia y Traducción (Comares, 2022). Guest editor of LAIC, Routledge (2007, 7:2) Intercultural Approaches to the Integration of Migrating Minorities and editor of other 10 volumes. Co-editor with Jose Lambert of Universe-Cities as Problematic Global Villages (2014) and head of the theatre collection CASA DE COMÈDIES and of INCOGNITO research group. She developed TRAUTOROM, the first MT engine RO/ES worldwide, 2006 (a project financed by the Romanian Government). She coordinated 5 research projects on theatre translation and migration. She created the BVMC Portal https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portales/mihai_eminescu/presentacion/ and founded the Official Exams ACLro in Spain. She supervised 5 PhDs and during the lockdown coordinated the pro bono work of 40 linguistic volunteers. She chairs ARIPI, a cultural association.

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