A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/108266 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications Do you hear what I hear? Inferring voice in celebrity translation in the theatre by Robert Paul Stock A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Translation Studies Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies University of Warwick May 2018 Table of contents Acknowledgements vii Declaration ix Abstract x Introduction 1 Background 2 Objectives 4 Methodology 6 Intention 7 1. Celebrity translation in the theatre in a theoretical context 8 1.1 Defining celebrity translation 9 1.2 Defining voice 15 1.3 Celebrity translation and translation theories 20 1.3.1 Introduction 20 1.3.2 Systems and norms 22 1.3.3 Skopos 27 1.3.4 Visibility, domestication and foreignisation 31 1.3.5 Contribution of theatre translation scholars 34 1.3.6 Contribution of adaptation scholars 44 1.3.7 Summary 48 1.4 Actor-network theory 51 1.5 Theories of reception 55 1.6 Relevance Theory 61 1.6.1 Celebrity translation and cognitive poetics 61 1.6.2 Fundamentals of Relevance Theory 63 1.6.3 Relevance Theory and intention 68 ii 1.6.4 Relevance Theory and meaning 72 1.6.5 Summary 77 2. Mark Ravenhill’s version of Bertolt Brecht’s Leben des Galilei 79 2.1 Introduction 80 2.2 Bertolt Brecht’s Leben des Galilei 83 2.3 Deborah Gearing’s literal translation of Leben des Galilei 88 2.4 Mark Ravenhill’s A Life of Galileo 92 2.5 Explicatures and implicatures 100 2.6 Ravenhill’s conscious celebrity voice 105 2.7 Ravenhill’s unconscious celebrity voice 120 2.8 Analysis of audience types 134 2.8.1 Research background 134 2.8.2 Research methodology 139 2.8.3 Research findings 143 2.9 Summary 149 3. Roger McGough’s version of Molière’s Tartuffe 151 3.1 Introduction 152 3.2 Molière’s Tartuffe 155 3.3 Roger McGough’s Tartuffe 159 3.4 Encyclopaedic entries 165 3.5 McGough and translated concepts 173 3.5.1 Underlying network of signification 173 3.5.2 Puns 180 3.5.3 Anachronism 184 3.6 McGough and comedic devices 188 3.6.1 Verse forms 188 3.6.2 Sociolects and ideolects 197 3.6.3 Repeated exoticisation 202 iii 3.7 Analysis of reviews and blogs 207 3.7.1 Research background 207 3.7.2 Research methodology 209 3.7.3 Research findings 213 3.8 Summary 224 4. Simon Stephens’ version of Henrik Ibsen’s Et dukkehjem 227 4.1 Introduction 228 4.2 Henrik Ibsen’s Et dukkehjem 231 4.3 Charlotte Barslund’s literal translation of Et dukkehjem 239 4.4 Simon Stephens’s A Doll’s House 243 4.5 Chains of weak implicatures 250 4.6 Stephens and sympathies for Nora 258 4.7 Stephens and emotionally damaged characters 282 4.8 Stephens and the constant search for home 292 4.9 Analysis of audience responses 302 4.9.1 Research background 302 4.9.2 Research methodology 304 4.9.3 Research findings 305 4.10 Summary 312 5. Conclusions and recommendations 315 5.1 Revising my research objectives 316 5.2 Acknowledging research constraints 322 5.3 A new perspective on the notion of voice 327 5.4 Reviewing the theatre translation process 331 5.5 Marketing translated theatre 336 5.6 Call to action 342 Bibliography 349 iv Table of figures 1.1 Relation between different actors in the case of celebrity translation 53 2.1 Visualisation of layers of interpretation 103 2.2 Potential explicatures and implicatures derived from Brecht’s source text (Act VI) 109 2.3 Potential explicatures and implicatures derived from Ravenhill’s translation (Act V) 109 2.4 First example of the conscious voice 110 2.5 Potential explicatures and implicatures derived from Brecht’s source text (Act XIII) 115 2.6 Potential explicatures and implicatures derived from Ravenhill’s translation (Act XIII) 117 2.7 Second example of the conscious voice 118 2.8 Potential explicatures and implicatures derived from Brecht’s source text (Act I) 124 2.9 Potential explicatures and implicatures derived from Ravenhill’s translation (Act I) 125 2.10 First example of the unconscious voice 126 2.11 Potential explicatures and implicatures derived from Brecht’s source text (Act XIV) 130 2.12 Potential explicatures and implicatures derived from Ravenhill’s translation (Act XIII) 131 2.13 Second example of the unconscious voice 132 2.14 ACORN categories, groups and types 142 2.15 Breakdown of bookings for A Life of Galileo 143 2.16 Breakdown of bookings for The Threepenny Opera 144 2.17 Breakdown of bookings by demographic types 145 v 3.1 Potential encyclopaedic entries attached to concept BLATHERSKITE* 168 3.2 Potential encyclopaedic entries attached to concept EROS* 175 3.3 Potential encyclopaedic entries attached to concept BEE* 177 3.4 Potential encyclopaedic entries attached to concept WRETCH/RETCH* 181 3.5 Potential encyclopaedic entries attached to concept CHEST* 183 3.6 Potential encyclopaedic entries attached to concept PRIORY* 186 3.7 Potential encyclopaedic entries attached to concept SWITCH FROM VERSE TO PROSE* 191 3.8 Potential encyclopaedic entries attached to concept ENJAMBMENT* 195 3.9 Potential encyclopaedic entries attached to concept DORINE’S SOCIOLECT* 200 3.10 Potential encyclopaedic entries attached to concept REPEATED EXOTICISATION* 205 3.11 Frequency of words appearing in reviews and blogs 213 4.1 Chain of weak implicatures implying Englishness 255 4.2 Chain of weak implicatures implying Stephens’s sympathies for Nora 259 4.3 Interview with Simon Stephens in the programme for A Doll’s House 266 4.4 Chain of weak implicatures implying emotionally damaged characters 283 4.5 Chain of weak implicatures implying drunkenness 289 4.6 Chain of weak implicatures implying a search for home 293 5.1 Pillars that construct voice 329 vi Acknowledgements I would most of all like to express my huge gratitude to my supervisors, Professor Jean Boase-Beier and Dr Chantal Wright, for your unfailing support, encouragement and inspiration along this journey. I could not have done this without you. Thanks are also due to my celebrity translators, Mark Ravenhill, Roger McGough and Simon Stephens, for your interest in my project and your patience with my questions. This research would not have existed without you. I am also very grateful for the assistance provided by literal translators Deborah Gearing and Charlotte Barslund, who generously gave their time and allowed me a unique insight into their role in the celebrity translation process. I am glad I have been able to help you become more visible. I would like to acknowledge the huge number of academics (some of whom have since become friends) who have helped me along the way, whether it be letting me pick their estimable brains or giving me a word of praise or two when I needed it most: Geraldine Brodie, John Bull, Billy Clark, Jim Davis, Karen van Dyck, B J Epstein, Joanna Gavins, Tess Grant, Phoebe von Held, Lesley Jeffries, Frances Jones, Katja Krebs, Duncan Large, Jane Lugea, Mark O’Thomas, Kate Scott, Joan Templeton, Carole-Anne Upton, Lawrence Venuti, Brian Walker, Deirdre Wilson, Stuart Young … and anyone else whom I may have forgotten. I have also been given invaluable help along the way by assorted members of the theatrical system, who responded to my often persistent requests for information and advice with grace and enthusiasm: Dominic Beaumont at the Liverpool Everyman, Lucy Gilham at the Young Vic, translator William Gregory, playwright Sarah Grochala, critic Andrew Haydon, Richard Leigh at vii Birmingham Rep, actor Hattie Morahan, Martin Poile at Headlong, producer Rowan Rutter and translator Ella Wildridge, to name but a few. I would like to thank Helen Gibson for being my proofreader and PhD buddy, and for helping me through those times when I nearly did not make it. I would also like to thank my husband Andrew – for believing in me throughout this whole process and beyond, particularly when I did not believe in myself. I promise there will be no more mountains to climb now (at least not for a while). And final thanks go to my Mum, who saw me embark on this journey and is hopefully watching with pride now that it has reached its completion. Because it is thanks to your spirit that I have arrived at this point. viii Declaration I, Robert Paul Stock, declare that the following work is original except where indicated by special reference in the text, and that no part of this thesis has been presented to any other University for examination either in the United Kingdom or overseas. I also declare that all the primary research (interviews and data analysis) reported on in this thesis has been carried out in accordance with the University of Warwick’s Research Code of Practice. ix Abstract The phenomenon of celebrity translation in the British theatrical system raises many hitherto unanswered questions about how we evaluate theatre translation using existing theories of translation. It also invites an exploration using a theoretical framework based on Relevance Theory, which examines the effects that a text potentially has on the receiver’s cognitive state in the light of the contextual background of the text, its author and its receivers.