1 Who's Afraid of Dario Fo? Paratextual Commentary in English
Who’s afraid of Dario Fo? Paratextual commentary in English-language versions of Accidental Death of an Anarchist Marion Dalvai This article analyzes the paratextual commentary in six English versions of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist. In the paratexts, translators, adaptors and literary critics engage with two problems: Fo’s permission to freely adapt his texts, on the one hand, and the demand for fidelity in a philological sense, on the other. Keywords: theatre translation, paratextual commentary, translation, adaptation, authenticity in translation. Cet article analyse les commentaires paratextuels dans six versions anglaises de Mort accidentelle d’un anarchiste par Dario Fo. Traducteurs, adaptateurs et critiques littéraires font face à deux problèmes: d’un côté, la permission que donne Fo de adapter librement ses textes et, de l’autre côté, l’exigence de rester fidèle dans un sens philologique à l’original. Mots clés : traduction théâtrale, commentaire paratextuel, traduction, adaptation, authenticité en traduction Morte accidentale di un anarchico, one of Dario Fo’s best known plays, is based on a true story: in 1969, a railway worker, Giuseppe Pinelli, was accused of involvement in the Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan. During police questioning, Pinelli fell to his death from a window on the fourth floor, raising the question as to whether he jumped or was pushed. In the play, the central figure called the “Matto” – variously translated as “the Maniac” or “the Madman”– resorts to playing different roles (a high court judge, a police officer, a bishop) in order to show that the true culprits were the policemen interrogating the anarchist.
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