Translating Sicily for the German and French stage: Modern Europe,its periphery,and the archaic in Luigi Pirandello's Questa sera si recita a soggetto (1929–1935)

Abstract

In the last two decades, the task of the translator for the theater has been frequently discussed and translation has been recognized as an important element in the process of play production. In light of these developments, and keeping in mind that a translation, as a “politically and ideologically charged creative process of rewriting” (Krebs and Minier, 2009: 66), is always shaped by constrictions that go beyond linguistic and semantic criteria, this article examines and compares the Italian, German, and French dramatic texts of Luigi Pirandello's Questa sera si recita a soggetto and their relation to first productions in Germany and France, within the time frame of 1929–1935. The aim is to investigate strategies for drama translation in the context of the late 1920s to early 1930s ideology and to examine how translators' choices affected the representations of regional and national transnational identities. The analysis sheds light on drama translation as well as on the role of the translator in the process of play productions; in addition, it questions the porous boundaries between translations and adaptations, as well as the hierarchy according to which scholars have often read the “original” in relation to subsequent versions.