The Turn of the Text? Opera Libretto and Translation: Appropriation, Adaptation and Transcoding in Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Owen Wingrave

Authors

  • Lucile Desblache Roehampton University (London)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7203/qf-elit.v13i0.4071

Keywords:

Henry James, opera libretto translation, Benjamin Britten, intralingual and interlingual transfer

Abstract

Why is Henry James’s writing suited to operatic expression? How successful are the “semiotic transmutations” (Jakobson, 1959: 233) of his fiction into operatic forms? What salient issues are visible in foreign translations of the libretti? First we shall question why Henry James’s texts have been an attractive source for contemporary opera. We shall then focus on the operatic versions of The Turn of the Screw and Owen Wingrave, considering aspects of their transfer from novellas into operatic forms. Finally, the challenges of providing a French translation of these operas for DVD format will be examined. We shall discuss these issues and question whether what Paul Ricoeur calls “la construction du comparable” (2004: 66) can successfully take place in opera.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Lucile Desblache, Roehampton University (London)

Reader, Director of the Centre for Research in Translation and Transcultural Studies Department of Media, Culture and Language

Downloads

How to Cite

Desblache, L. (2014). The Turn of the Text? Opera Libretto and Translation: Appropriation, Adaptation and Transcoding in Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Owen Wingrave. Quaderns De Filologia - Estudis Literaris, 13, 105–123. https://doi.org/10.7203/qf-elit.v13i0.4071
Metrics
Views/Downloads
  • Abstract
    212
  • PDF (Español)
    382

Issue

Vol. 13 (2008): CREATIVE TRANSLATION

Section

Artículos

License

Licencia de Creative CommonsEste obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 4.0 Internacional.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

 

    1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

 

    1. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

 

  1. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

Metrics

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.