Fluid borders: From Carmen to The Car Man . Bourne’s ballet in the light of post-translation
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M. Carmen África Vidal Claramonte
Abstract
This paper takes Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man as an example of today’s enlarged definition of translation, following Maria Tymoczko’s, Susan Bassnett’s, Edwin Gentzler’s and other, new post-positivist approaches to contemporary translation. Bourne’s post-translation offers an up-to-date version of Bizet’s world: he deconstructs genres and genders by subverting opera and dance, but also straight and gay binary oppositions, thus creating richer and more ambiguous identities and characters. Bourne’s translation in The Car Man wants his intersemiotic rewriting of the past to be more down to earth and more real, taking ballet and opera closer to a new audience. The Car Man is a paradigm of crossroads which breaks away from linear discourses and binary oppositions and which opts for less common lines and different angles. In sum, a contemporary translation.
Abstract
This paper takes Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man as an example of today’s enlarged definition of translation, following Maria Tymoczko’s, Susan Bassnett’s, Edwin Gentzler’s and other, new post-positivist approaches to contemporary translation. Bourne’s post-translation offers an up-to-date version of Bizet’s world: he deconstructs genres and genders by subverting opera and dance, but also straight and gay binary oppositions, thus creating richer and more ambiguous identities and characters. Bourne’s translation in The Car Man wants his intersemiotic rewriting of the past to be more down to earth and more real, taking ballet and opera closer to a new audience. The Car Man is a paradigm of crossroads which breaks away from linear discourses and binary oppositions and which opts for less common lines and different angles. In sum, a contemporary translation.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Open perspectives
- Opera and intercultural musicology as modes of translation 13
- Surtitles and the multi-semiotic balance 35
- Tradition and transgression 53
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Across genres and media
- When Mei Lanfang encountered Fei Mu 75
- Fluid borders: From Carmen to The Car Man . Bourne’s ballet in the light of post-translation 95
- Aesthetics of translation 117
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Text and context
- Translations, adaptations or rewritings? 135
- The voice of the translator 159
- “Ordne die Reih’n” 175
- The migration of Madama Butterfly 195
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From text to stage
- The intertwined nature of music, language and culture in Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle 219
- Translating Wagner’s Versmelodie 243
- Operetta in Turkey 271
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Libretto translation revisited
- Two English translations of Jaroslav Kvapil’s Rusalka libretto 291
- Intertextuality in nineteenth-century Italian librettos: To translate or not to translate? 315
- Multilingual libretti across linguistic borders and translation modes 337
- About the contributors 359
- Index 365
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Open perspectives
- Opera and intercultural musicology as modes of translation 13
- Surtitles and the multi-semiotic balance 35
- Tradition and transgression 53
-
Across genres and media
- When Mei Lanfang encountered Fei Mu 75
- Fluid borders: From Carmen to The Car Man . Bourne’s ballet in the light of post-translation 95
- Aesthetics of translation 117
-
Text and context
- Translations, adaptations or rewritings? 135
- The voice of the translator 159
- “Ordne die Reih’n” 175
- The migration of Madama Butterfly 195
-
From text to stage
- The intertwined nature of music, language and culture in Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle 219
- Translating Wagner’s Versmelodie 243
- Operetta in Turkey 271
-
Libretto translation revisited
- Two English translations of Jaroslav Kvapil’s Rusalka libretto 291
- Intertextuality in nineteenth-century Italian librettos: To translate or not to translate? 315
- Multilingual libretti across linguistic borders and translation modes 337
- About the contributors 359
- Index 365
