French Literature Reviews - 2026
Theatre Creation. Adaptation, Schemes, Translation
Theatre and Performance
Theatre Creation. Adaptation, Schemes, Translation
Danièle Berton, Jean-Pierre Simard (eds.)
PUSE (PU SAINT-ETIENNE)
CIEREC, « Theatre » series
Isbn : 978-2-86272-454-6
348 pages.
33 Euros
Publisher's overview:
This volume reflects the coherent diversity of the EsTRADes research team's seminars dedicated to the adaptation, translation, and analysis of the interpretation of various dramatic texts, framed within CIEREC's overarching research theme, "Schemes and Creative Processes - Intersemiotic Relations."
Performance art is examined here within the dynamic stretching from the source text (the utterance) to its staging—exploring the tension between the interpretations offered by the various mediators bringing the text to the stage, between the compositional rules and the driving matrix of the work, and between pre-established, constraining fixity and the products of imagination at every stage of creation. True to a research group dedicated to live performance, this study focuses on the intersection of two types of language: the written and the theatrical, primarily combining historical criticism, semiotics, aesthetics, sociology, and literary critique in its exploration of discourse and its patterns.
Building upon this project, the EsTRADes team presents a rich and varied analytical journey spanning from antiquity to contemporary theatre, with a primary focus on the English-speaking world, though making no claims to exhaustivity. As a reminder, this range of proposals is complemented by the proceedings of the international conference held in October 2005, organized in partnership with RADAC and published in the annual journal *Coup de Théâtre* under the title *Expression contemporaine et représentations dans le théâtre anglophone* (no. 20, April 2006).
This conference focused on the theatrical staging of the contemporary English-speaking repertoire across a multitude of cultures.
Table of Contents:
On Textual Interpretation: From the "Founding Fathers" to the "New World" and "New Writing"; Foundational Wandering and Landmarks in the Work of Samuel Beckett
The study of theatre creation often involves analyzing the transformation of a written script into a live performance, a process that necessitates navigating the relationship between linguistic expression and stagecraft. This volume situates its inquiry within the broader tradition of performance studies, which considers the intersection of historical, semiotic, and sociological perspectives when evaluating how theatrical meaning is constructed and communicated to an audience.
The EsTRADes research team's seminars are dedicated to the adaptation, translation, and analysis of the interpretation of various dramatic texts, framed within CIEREC's research theme, "Schemes and Creative Processes - Intersemiotic Relations." The investigations span from antiquity to contemporary theatre, with a primary focus on the English-speaking world. Readers interested in the methodologies of adaptation and the intersemiotic relations between literary texts and their dramatic interpretations may find this collection relevant to their research into the mechanics of theatrical production.