Shaul Levin

Translating the theatre of the absurd: developing a framework for a general theory of transfer

Scholars have long called for the study of translation within a general theory of transfer (Even-Zohar 1981). Drawing on insights from a number of social sciences and humanities disciplines, this paper proposes a preliminary outline for a general theory of transfer, aiming at cross-disciplinary understanding and applicability. Transfer is defined on a semiotic-functional level, and several principles are postulated: the continuous nature of transfer processes; a sociological principle of the dynamics governing the spread of items in culture; and a historical principle linking the nature of their modification with temporal aspects of the process. An analysis of the translation of four plays, in the theatre of the absurd tradition, into Hebrew in the late 1950s and early 1960s demonstrates how the suggested framework facilitates the study of translation phenomena as a form of transfer more tightly embedded in the cultural, sociological, and historical aspects of production and reception.  

Keywords: Translation Studies, transfer theory, cultural transfer, theatre of the absurd

Biography

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