Theorising (un)performability and (un)translatability

ABSTRACT

In recent years, ‘translatability’, or rather, ‘untranslatability’ has been a much-discussed topic in translation studies. However, the state of its theorisation has remained relatively rudimentary, focusing in large part on assertions that specific texts, or textual features cannot be translated on the basis of certain cultural, ideological, or linguistic idiosyncrasies. In theatre and performance studies, the closely comparable notion of ‘unperformability’ exists, which describes texts, passages, or elements of plays which cannot be performed for one technical, ideological, practical reason or another. Yet, unperformability has not been extensively theorised and the treatment of these closely related notions differs radically in each respective research field. The aim of this article is to ask whether, by comparing, and ultimately synthesising the two notions, theoretical definition can be added. Such definition, it is argued, would allow thinking about ‘translatability’ and ‘performability’ as complementary notions that acknowledge the creative workarounds employed as a matter of course in translations and performances.

KEYWORDS:

• Untranslatability
• unperformability
• ideology
• practice
• performance studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Dominic Glynn is assistant professor in the department of Linguistics and Translation at the City University of Hong Kong. His research sits at the intersection of literary, performance and translation studies. Previously, he was the principal investigator of an Arts and Humanities Research Network Grant (UK) entitled ‘Literature under Constraint’ (2017–19) that investigated which factors (mind-sets, political context, social environments, intermediaries) shape and constrain French and Francophone literary production. He is currently leading a research project on the translation of plays between France and the UK in the contemporary period (CityU New Faculty Start-Up Grant).

Dr James Hadley is Trinity College Dublin’s Ussher Assistant Professor in Literary Translation, Director of the College’s MPhil in Literary Translation, and PI of the Irish Research Council-funded QuantiQual Project. His research is representative of his wide-ranging interests, many of which centre on translation in under-researched cultural contexts, particularly in East Asia. He is also active in Machine Translation and Computer Assisted Translation research, and in integrating Digital Humanities methodologies and empirical research into Translation Studies.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by City University of Hong Kong: [Grant Number 7200619].