Lorna Hardwick
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199296101
- eISBN:
- 9780191712135
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296101.003.0018
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter discusses the impact of multilingual productions of Greek drama in modern theatrical contexts, including community theatre. It examines the status of English as an imperial language, as ...
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This chapter discusses the impact of multilingual productions of Greek drama in modern theatrical contexts, including community theatre. It examines the status of English as an imperial language, as a language of cross-cultural communication that has also been the vehicle for dissent and liberation, and as a language that was historically subaltern and—in terms of its function as a language of translation for classical texts—might be said to be continually so. The chapter uses examples of theatrical, poetic, and community practice as a check against totalising theory. It cautions against assimilating all examples of multilingual productions into one kind of post-colonial ‘moment’ and suggests that examination of different kinds of linguistic ‘braiding’ in translations, and in the staging of classical plays, provides an insight into the processes of engagement between and within cultures. These processes cross and reformulate social and cultural boundaries and groupings in the societies of colonisers and colonised alike. Multilingualism in stage productions, both inter-lingual and intra-lingual, is playing an important role in redefining both the classical texts and the concept of the post-colonial.Less
This chapter discusses the impact of multilingual productions of Greek drama in modern theatrical contexts, including community theatre. It examines the status of English as an imperial language, as a language of cross-cultural communication that has also been the vehicle for dissent and liberation, and as a language that was historically subaltern and—in terms of its function as a language of translation for classical texts—might be said to be continually so. The chapter uses examples of theatrical, poetic, and community practice as a check against totalising theory. It cautions against assimilating all examples of multilingual productions into one kind of post-colonial ‘moment’ and suggests that examination of different kinds of linguistic ‘braiding’ in translations, and in the staging of classical plays, provides an insight into the processes of engagement between and within cultures. These processes cross and reformulate social and cultural boundaries and groupings in the societies of colonisers and colonised alike. Multilingualism in stage productions, both inter-lingual and intra-lingual, is playing an important role in redefining both the classical texts and the concept of the post-colonial.
