Cultural capital in intercultural theatre
A study of Pan Pan theatre company’s The Playboy of the Western World
In 2006, the Dublin-based theatre company Pan Pan went to China to produce a Mandarin version of J.M. Synge’s canonical Irish play The Playboy of the Western World. Director Gavin Quinn chose to set the adaptation in a hairdresser/ massage parlour/brothel, on the outskirts of Beijing. He originally wanted the protagonist to hail from Xin-Jiang, China’s troubled Sinomuslim province. In interview, he said he was advised against this for fear of Chinese state censorship. However, the Chinese translators, Yue Sun and Zhaohui Wang, suggest that the decision not to represent a Muslim protagonist had to do with ethnic sensitivities. In order to analyse this conflict, this article draws on translation sociology after Bourdieu, clarifying the functioning of the habitus, and formulating a global field of cultural production. It argues that analysis of intercultural processes focused on cultural capital can provide materially engaged insights into the power relations informing given intercultural situations.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Cultural capital in intercultural contexts
- 3.Cultural capital, postcolonialism and interculturalism
- 4.An analysis of the cultural capital informing the Pan Pan Playboy
- 5.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
References (61)
References
Amine, Khalid. 2010. “Taswir: Beyond East and West.” In Performing Cultural Diversity, Critiquing Postcolonialism, ed. by Khalid Amine, Barry Tharaud, José Manuel Goñi Pérez, and George F. Robertson, 75–80. Tetouan: Abdelmalek Essaadi UP.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baines, Roger, Cristina Marinetti, and Manuella Perteghella (eds). 2010. Staging and Performing Translation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Balme, Christopher. 1999. Decolonizing the Stage: Theatrical Syncretism and Post-colonial Drama. London: Clarendon. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bassnett, Susan. 1991. “Translating for the Theatre: The Case against Performability.” TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction 4 (1): 99–111. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bassnett, Susan. 2002. Translation Studies. 3rd edition. London: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bharucha, Rustom. 1984a. “A Collision of Cultures: Some Western Interpretations of the Indian Theatre.” Asian Theatre Journal 1 (1): 1–20. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bharucha, Rustom. 1984b. “A Reply to Richard Schechner.” Asian Theatre Journal 1 (2): 254–260. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bharucha, Rustom. 1988. “Peter Brook's Mahabharata: A View from India.” Economic and Political Weekly 23 (32): 1642–1647.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bharucha, Rustom. 2000. The Politics of Cultural Practice: Thinking Through Theatre in an Age of Globalization. London: Athlone.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Blommaert, Jan. 2005. “Bourdieu the Ethnographer: The Ethnographic Grounding of Habitus and Voice.” The Translator 11 (2): 219–236. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1980. The Logic of Practice. Translated by Richard Nice. California: Stanford UP.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1986. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. Harvard: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1988. Homo Academicus. Translated by Peter Colier. California: Stanford UP.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production. Oxford: Polity Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1999. “The Social Conditions of the International Circulation of Ideas.” In Bourdieu: A Critical Reader, ed. by Richard Shusterman, 220–228. Oxford: Blackwell.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bourdieu, Pierre, and Jean-Claude Passeron. 1990. Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. Translated by Lois Wacquant. London: Sage.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Carlson, Marvin. 2004. “Intercultural Theory, Postcolonial Theory, and Semiotics: The Road Not (Yet) Taken.” Semiotica 168 (1): 129–142.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chaudhuri, Una. 1991. “The Future of the Hyphen: Interculturalism, Textuality and the Difference Within.” In Interculturalism and Performance: Writings from PAJ, ed. by Bonnie Marranca, and Gautum Dasgupta, 192–207. New York: PAJ.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dasgupta, Gautum. 1991. “Peter Brook's ‘Orientalism’.” In Peter Brook and the Mahabharata: Critical Perspectives, ed. by David Williams, 262–267. London: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
During, Simon. 1995. “Postmodernism or Post-colonialism Today.” In The Post-colonial Studies Reader, ed. by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin, 125–129. Oxford: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fischer-Lichte, Erika. 2009. “Interweaving Cultures in Performance: Different States of Being In-Between.” New Theatre Quarterly 25 (4): 391–401. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Friederich, Michael. 2007. “Uyghur Literary Translations of Xinjiang Realities.” In Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia, ed. by Ildikó Bellér-Hann, M. Cristina Cesaro, Rachel Harris, and Joanne Smith Finley, 92–104. Burlington: Ashgate.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gilbert, Helen, and Jacqueline Lo. 1996. Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics. London: Routledge. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gilbert, Helen, and Jacqueline Lo. 2007. Performance and Cosmopolitics: Cross-Cultural Transactions in Australasia. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gouanvic, Jean-Marc. 2005. “A Bourdieusian Theory of Translation, or the Coincidence of Practical Instances: Field, ‘Habitus’, Capital and ‘Illusio’.” The Translator 11 (2): 147–166. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heilbron, Johan, and Gisèle Sapiro (eds). 2002. Traduction: les échanges Littéraires Internationaux (Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales 144). Paris: Seuil.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heilbron, Johan, and Gisèle Sapiro. 2007. “Outline for a Sociology of Translation.” In Constructing a Sociology of Translation, ed. by Michaela Wolf, and Alexandra Fukari, 93–107. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Knight, Nick. 2006. “Reflecting on the Paradox of Globalisation: China's Search for Cultural Identity and Coherence.” China: An International Journal 4 (1): 1–31.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Knowles, Ric. 2010. Theatre and Interculturalism. London: Palgrave. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lefevere, André. 1998. “Chinese and Western Thinking on Translation.” In Constructing Cultures: Essays on Literary Translation, ed. by Susan Bassnett, and André Lefevere, 12–24. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lei, Daphne P. 2011. “Interruption, Intervention, Interculturalism: Robert Wilson's HIT Productions in Taiwan.” Theatre Journal 63 (4): 571–586. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lipman, Jonathan N. 2006. “A Fierce and Brutal People: On Islam and Muslims in Qing Law.” In Empire at the Margins, ed. by Pamela Kyle Crossley, Helen F. Siu, and Donald S. Sutton, 83–110. Berkeley: University of California Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lo, Jacqueline. 2006. “‘Queer Magic’: Performing Mixed-Race on the Australian Stage.” Contemporary Theatre Review 16 (2): 171–188. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lonergan, Patrick. 2009. Theatre and Globalization: Irish Drama in the Celtic Tiger Era. London: Palgrave.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Marinetti, Cristina. 2013. “Transnational, Multilingual and Post-dramatic: Rethinking the Location of Translation in Contemporary Theatre.” In Theatre Translation in Performance, ed. by Silvia Bigliazzi, Paola Ambrosi, and Peter Kofler, 27–37. London: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Millward, James A., and Laura Newby. 2006. “The Qing and Islam on the Western Front.” In Empire at the Margins, ed. by Pamela Kyle Crossley, Helen F. Siu, and Donald S. Sutton, 113–134. Berkeley: University of California Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Min, Tian. 2008. The Poetics of Difference and Displacement. Hong Kong: Hong Kong UP.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Moukhlis, Salah M. 2010. “Agents of Change, Critical Theory and New Geographies of Postcoloniality.” In Performing Cultural Diversity: Critiquing Postcolonialism, ed. by Khalid Amine, Barry Tharaud, José Manuel Goñi Pérez, and George F. Robertson, 89–110. Tetouan: Abdelmalek Essaadi UP.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Newby, Laura. 1996. “Xinjiang: in Search of an Identity.” In Unity and Diversity: Local Cultures and Identities in China, ed. by David Faure, and Tao Tao Liu, 67–81. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
O’Toole, Emer. 2011. “Towards Best Intercultural Practice: An Analysis of Tim Supple's pan-Indian A Midsummer Night's Dream.” Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance 4 (3): 289–302. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pan Pan Theatre Company. 2006. The Playboy of the Western World Dubl in Programme. Dublin, 13–16 December 2006.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Quinn, Gavin. 2009. Personal Interview. 5 Aug. 2009.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Said, Edward. 1978. Orientalism. London: Penguin.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Shevstova, Maria. 1997. “Interculturalism, Aestheticism, Orientalism: Starting from Peter Brook's Mahabharata.” Theatre Research International 22 (2): 98–104. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Singleton, Brian. 1997. “The Pursuit of Otherness for the Investigation of Self.” Theatre Research International 22 (2): 93–97. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Singleton, Brian. 2003. “Interculturalism.” In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, ed. by Dennis Kennedy, 628–630. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
The Playboy of the Western World. 2006. Dir. Pan Pan Theatre Company. Perf. Xia Zi Xin, Liao Wei, Zhang Wan Kun. Pan Pan: DVD.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
The Playboy of the Western World. 2007. Dir. Pan Pan Theatre Company. Available at Youtube.com (Accessed 14 April 2010).![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Venuti, Lawrence. 1998. The Scandals of Translation: Towards and Ethics of Difference. London: Routledge. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Xie, Shaobo. 1997. “Rethinking the Problem of Postcolonialism.” New Literary History 28 (1): 7–19. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Yue, Sun, and Zhaohui Wang. 2010. Personal Interview. 25 Nov. 2010.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zatlin, Phylis. 2005. Theatre Translation and Film Adaptation: A Practitioner's View. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Iliescu-Gheorghiu, Catalina
2020.
Rebel with a Cause: Domnica Radulescu’s Theater Translated into Spanish.
Contemporary Women's Writing 14:1
► pp. 84 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Iliescu-Gheorghiu, Catalina
2024.
Children’s theatre in L1 and L2 as an intercultural communication tool for educators.
Language and Intercultural Communication ► pp. 1 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.