Text Performances and Cultural Transfer/Textperformances und Kulturtransfer

2021

Text Performances and Cultural Transfer/Textperformances und Kulturtransfer

Von der Rezitation auf die Bühne. Ein übersetzungstheoretischer Werkstattbericht zu zeitgenössischen deutschen Theaterversionen von Senecas Tragödien

Seneca’s dramas brood in the shadows of the Attic tragedies, which are frequently played in theatres all over the world. To this day, it is controversial whether Seneca’s plays were intended for the stage or only for recitation. But the enormous after-effect of these texts in the literature devoted to European theatre (above all in Shakespeare) shows that they themselves are not only part of our cultural heritage, but that it is worthwhile to consider how one might propose a more contemporary staging of these works in order to afford an authentic reception for the first time – and indeed, for a broader public. Admittedly, the texts can and will only find a larger audience if Seneca’s recitation dramas are brought to the contemporary stage in a form and language appropriate to this audience. In a project undertaken by Saarbrücken Classical Philology since 2011, for the first time directly playable German translations are to be produced for this purpose. These take into account the dramaturgical peculiarities of the plays by negotiating between philological considerations and the requirements of performance itself. At the same time, philologically flawless translations of the Latin text into German emerge as the crux of the matter. The present essay will discuss this multiplex process of translation on the basis of an example already tested in a stage performance and in the light of various theories of translation