The Translator as Cultural Promoter: or how Renato Gabrielli’s Qualcosa Trilla went on the Road as Mobile Thriller

Abstract

While scholarship in translation studies makes frequent reference to theatre translators as cultural mediators (Bassnett 1998, Aaltonen 2000), the term is usually intended in a textual sense, indicating the function that translators, in their role as intermediaries between the source and target text, play in negotiating meaning between cultures. In this article, which is based on Rose’s experience in the translation and British production of Renato Gabrielli’s Qualcosa Trilla, we suggest that the specific contexts of practice of this theatre translation project point to a much wider set of roles covered by the translator/cultural mediator. These extend far beyond the delivery of the text in the target language and include: creating a market for the translated plays (by raising funds for production, organizing festivals and other events) as well as following the text of the play through production, rehearsal and site specific performance. We also suggest, in a vein that supports the overall methodological stance of this collection, that studying specific contexts of practice of translation phenomena through a combination of textual analysis, practitioner’s account and critical reflection, can offer innovative insights into our understanding of translation and can be a valuable counterpart to theoretical considerations based on descriptive analysis.

From Hugh MacLennan’s novel Two Solitudes, published in Toronto by Collins in 1945. The title is a metaphor that has become the emblem of the relation between francophone and anglophone cultures in Canada. For more details, see Ladouceur 2009.