Translation as de- and reconstructing synsemiotic relationships
Contextual dimensions of opera libretto translation
In order to describe the nature of opera as a polysemiotic artifact and to address the challenges around its
transfer, reference is often made to the concept of “context,” which, however, is usually used rather casually and intuitively and
is rarely defined precisely. Building on the theory of synsemioticity, a somewhat tighter analytical grid will be presented that
allows the extension of context to become clearer. This is achieved in two ways: first, the status of nonverbal in the
polysemiotic artifact is addressed, which, referring to Catford, must be defined as co-text rather than as context. Second, it
will be shown on which semiotic levels contextuality can be described. The examples given here are taken from the opera
Orfeo ed Euridice (1762) by Christoph Willibald Gluck and from some of the translations in German and French
based on this work.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Context – co-text – text and polysemioticity
- 3.Synsemioticity
- 3.1Symphysis
- 3.2Syntactics
- 3.3Synsemanticity
- 3.4Sympractice
- 3.5Recontextualization
- 4.Conclusions
- Notes
-
References