Age and Translation

Hello All!

I wanted to take this opportunity to go off of a questions that I brought up under another post. I questioned whether the age of the original work was correlated with amount of artistic licenses available to the translator. For example older original works like Shakespeare and even religious texts, seem to lead to many translations varying in their maintenance of the original work. We probably have all seen The Lion King, which is the Disney, cartoon version of Hamlet. Though the themes and characters may be similar, the overall stories, settings, etc. are vastly different. On the other hand you have original works that were created much more recently, like the Harry Potter series; it seems to me that these books had a much more restricted range of interpretations that were deemed acceptable.

So my questions on this subject are
1. Do you think there is a distinction between the artistic license taken for works of different ages? What examples do you have to support your opinion?
2. If you think there is a difference or have seen differences, why do imagine those differences exist? (this question is a bit like trying to get into the heads of the translators, but sometimes that can be were we discover the coolest stuff!)

If you would prefer to discuss something else that is still related to the topic
3. What do you think qualifies as a translation of the original? Example: Is Lion King not a true translation of Hamlet? Why or why not?

Translating History into a Romance

Hi girls,

So while watching 300, I realized that there is a little emphasis put on the love between Leonidas & his queen. This reminded me of two other movies based on historical events with romances intertwined, Pearl Harbor and Titanic. Now, why do you think a director would add a love story into a movie that deals with something as important as our history? Do you think this in some way prevents the viewer from understanding the whole story? Maybe in order to fit the whole romance the director might cut the translation of the historical event short. Or does this enhance the viewers perspective of the event? Allowing us to see how certain people were affected. Or maybe it does both or neither. What do you think? I can't wait to see all of your opinions!! (try to be specific on how translating a historical event into a romantic movie enhances or worsens that certain event)

Revised Blog Schedule

Hello, all!

Just a quick little housekeeping note--Sarah Salvo had to drop the course, so I have moved Ingrid's week to post to hers (so, instead of Aubrey and Ingrid posting on February 23rd, it will just be Aubrey and then Ingrid will post on March 2).

Thanks!

Creativity in Translating

Hi Everyone!

One of the things I want to explore this semester is how a person who "translates" a work from one artistic medium to another uses his or her creative license. Often the translator takes some license and changes parts of the original story. Also, adding visual or audio stimuli often changes meaning on some level even when the story isn't changed much. But a lot of times he or she has to be creative in order to figure out how to portray something that works well in one form of art to another. For example, how does someone compress a novel onto the stage where there are space and time constraints?

For my post this week, you can elaborate on how you have seen creativity in some kind of adaptation. Or talk about some adaptation you really loved or really hated. : )

As for me, I really love both the novel and musical adaptation of Les Misérables. Although they cut out a lot for the musical (like the history of sewers in France!), I felt like it caught the essence of the story. The production used a rotating stage for quick set changes and to show motion. The music itself is absolutely beautiful, and it's through-composed with very little dialogue. If you have seen it, feel free to talk about what you thought too!

Anyway, thanks for taking this class! I'm excited for the semester!

Laura

Blog Posts

Hello, everyone!

Below is the blog schedule for everyone's info:

January 26: Priscilla and Perla
February 2: Tara and Ife
February 9: Marissa and Emma
February 16: Candace and Rachelle
February 23: Aubrey and Ingrid
March 2: Sarah S.
March 9: No blog (spring break)
March 16: No blog (spring break)
March 23: Sarah P.
March 30: Lindsey
April 6: Kami
April 13: Claudia
April 20: Holly
April 27: Kathryn and Laura