Performing (Re)writing: Moving Through Modes of Textual Engagement

Abstract

This paper frames the concepts of foreignization and domestication, so fervently discussed in the field of Τranslation Studies, within a selection of theories put forward by theatre studies scholars and literary theorists. After exploring the definitions of foreignization and domestication as proposed by Lawrence Venuti (1995), as well as the modes of textual engagement advanced by Rita Felski (2008), namely recognition, enchantment, knowledge, and shock, we address parallel discourses in other fields and make a case for conceiving of the act of translation as both a form of performance and a type of writing. In aligning Bertolt Brecht’s aesthetics of estrangement, or “V-Effect”, with foreignization and shock, and, conversely, Constantin Stanislavsky's System with domestication and enchantment, we are able to consider more broadly how textual choices made in the writing and translating process can contribute to soliciting various forms of audience response. In an effort to apply these discussions to fictional texts, the example of non-standard language, and especially the youth slang of the banlieue parisienne used in Kiffe kiffe demain (Faiza Guène, Hachette 2004), is adopted. This backdrop allows us to consider the choices made to transcribe and subsequently translate the linguistic features of this performance for readers generally unfamiliar with this language in its raw state raise a number of questions related to the authenticity and accessibility of their (re)presentation.

Keywords

• stanislavsky
• brecht
• felski
• venuti
• foreignization
• domestication
• banlieue
• slang