An overview of the translation into Asturian of dramatic texts

Abstract

Against the backdrop of Itamar Even-Zohar’s Polysystem Theory, the phenomenon of translating literary texts—particularly those of a dramatic nature—into other languages constitutes, within the Performing Arts (especially in the Asturian context), a field of study with specific connotations. On the one hand, the very nature of the dramatic text, which may not coincide with the performance script; and on the other, the existence of less conventional forms of translation—since the channels of stage communication differ from those of written literature—broaden the boundaries of the object of study and shape a specific subsystem. This may help define aspects related either to a Theatre Corpus for Asturias or to an Asturian linguistic-literary system. Based on these premises, this article seeks to provide an approach to the volume of activity generated by the translations of dramatic texts into Asturian, drawing on private archives, websites, newsletters and official documents, previous studies on the subject, and various publications.