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.

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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

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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
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Issue

Vol. 13 (2008): CREATIVE TRANSLATION

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Artículos

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