Found in Translation: Greek Drama in English

In considering the practice and theory of translating plays into English from Classical Greek from a theatrical perspective, Found in Translation also addresses wider issues of transferring any piece of theatre from a source into a target language. The history of translating classical tragedy and comedy, here fully investigated for the first time, demonstrates how through the ages translators have, wittingly or unwittingly, appropriated Greek plays and made them reflect socio-political concerns of their own era. Chapters are devoted to topics including verse and prose, mask and non-verbal language, stage directions and subtext and translating the comic. Among the plays discussed as ‘case studies’ are Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus and Euripides’ Medea and Alcestis. The book concludes with a consideration of the boundaries between ‘translation’ and ‘adaptation’, followed by an Appendix of every translation of Greek tragedy and comedy into English from the 1550s to the present day.

• Uses ‘case studies’ of specific texts including Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus and Euripides’ Medea and Alcestis • Offers a bridge between classicists, theatre historians and practitioners • The Appendix of all translations from Greek into English is a unique record

Introduction: ‘Summon the Presbyterians’; 1. Finding principles, finding a theory; 2. Historical perspectives: Lumley to Lennox; 3. Aeschylus and the Agamemnon: gilding the lily; 4. Translating the mask: the non-verbal language; 5. Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus: words and concepts; 6. Text and subtext: from bad to verse; 7. Euripides’ Medea and Alcestis: from sex to sentiment; 8. The comic tradition; 9. Modernising comedy; 10. When is a translation not a translation; Appendix. A comprehensive list of all Greek plays in English translation; Bibliography.