Shakespeare, Nicole Kidman and Contemporary Translation Theory
What is it about?
Dirk Delabastita presents in 2004 an article about Shakespeare and Translation. Surprisingly, he does not discuss Shakespeare's work in translation, but rather translation in Shakespeare's work: translators at work, scenes with multilingual dialogues, and even mock translations and gibberish. Translation is presented in this article as a dramatic vehicle, often necessary even when the characters know each other's language quite well. Most memorable in this respect is the conversation between Katherine and Henry V (H5 5.2.104-20) in which translation is used only as a convenient buffer in their High-Power romance. Alice, the "translator" is left quite useless when it becomes clear that Henry and Katherine understand each other very well. In Sydney Pollack's 2005 film, The Interpreter, Nicole Kidman is Silvia Broome, an interpreter for the United Nation who often interprets speech that is well comprehended in the original. But unlike Alice, Silvia is the main character in the film who is quite involved in a volatile international conflict. The character of Silvia also responds to an article by Michael Cronin from 2003 in which he discusses the changed tasks and challenges of translators in an age of globalization and new technology. According to Cronin, translators today work within a complex social and technological network. The task of rendering words in a different language might be partially taken over by machines. But translators' skills as experts on foreign cultures and societies should be given a greater social and political role. Silvia Broome, who was born in Matobo and lost her brother to a failed revolution, is by far more than a "translation box" with source text coming in on one end, and target text coming out on the other. But is the movie industry beginning to read translation theory? Or is translation theory beginning to address the realities of translation in the twenty-first century?
Why is it important?
The article applies the notion of the dramatic function of translation to electronic media, and considers the relevance of contemporary translation theory to the 21st century.