Cover not available
Article published In:
Translation and LGBT+/queer activism
Edited by Michela Baldo, Jonathan Evans and Ting Guo
[Translation and Interpreting Studies 16:2] 2021
► pp. 196–218

The body center stage

Chouinard’s Jérôme Bosch: Le Jardin des délices as a queering translation

ORCID logo | University of Lisbon
This article examines Marie Chouinard’s choreography Jérôme Bosch: Le Jardin des délices (2016) as an intermedial translation of Bosch’s homonymous painting. Taking the concepts of distribution of the sensible and esthetic regime developed by Rancière (2004) as groundwork, I consider how dance and translation participate in the political by challenging traditional hierarchal author–translator relationships, by introducing new corporealities and discourses in the realm of the visible and by exploiting the slippage of meaning that can be produced in the reiteration of discourse and citationality that characterize these two disciplines. I conclude by arguing that in engaging with these three lines of thought, Jérôme Bosch: Le Jardin des délices offers a model of translation as an embodied and situated practice that combines the esthetic and the political by bringing a dialogue between equally participating subjects to bear upon a specific context.
Keywords: queering translation, intermedial translation, The Garden of Earthly Delights , Marie Chouinard, contemporary dance
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Redistributing the sensible on page and stage
  • Beyond fidelity and betrayal: The intervenient translator
  • A queering translation
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.19058.mon
References (84)
References
Aaltonen, Sirrku. 2000. Time-Sharing on Stage. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Aguiar, Daniella. 2013. Da Literatura Para Dança. A Prosa Poetica de Gertrude Stein em Tradução Intersemiotica. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Universidade de Estado do Rio de Janeiro.Google Scholar
Albright, Ann Cooper. 1997. Choreographing Difference. The Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Asante, M. K. 2008. It’s Bigger than Hip Hop. London: St. Martin Press.Google Scholar
Baer, Brian James and Klaus Kaindl (eds). 2018. Queering Translation, Translating the Queer. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Baldass, Ludwig. 1960. Hieronymus Bosch. New York: H. N. Abrams.Google Scholar
Baldo, Michela. 2018. “Queer translation as performative and affective undoing: Translating Butler’s Undoing Gender into Italian.” In Queering Translation, Translating the Queer. Theory, Practice, Activism, ed. by Brian James Baer and Klaus Kaindl, 188–206. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Basile, Elena. 2018. “A scene of intimate entanglements, or, reckoning with the “fuck” of translation.” In Queering Translation, Translating the Queer. Theory, Practice, Activism, ed. by Brian James Baer and Klaus Kaindl, 26–38. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bennett, Karen. 2007. “Words into movement. The ballet as intersemiotic translation.” In Teatro e Tradução. Palcos de Encontro, ed. by Maria João Brilhante and Manuela Carvalho, 123–138. Lisbon: Colibri.Google Scholar
Bermann, Sandra. 2014. “Performing translation.” In A Companion to Translation Studies, ed. by Sandra Berman and Catherine Porter, 285–298. New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boulanger, Pier-Pascale. 2005. “L’érotique du traduire.” Meta 50(4). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Braidotti, Rosy. 2006. Transpositions. On Nomadic Ethics. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Brandstetter, Gabriele and Holger Hartung (eds). 2017. Moving [Across] Borders: Performing Translation, Intervention, Participation. Verlag: Transcript. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brandstetter, Gabriele, Gerko Hegert, and Holger Hartung (eds). 2019. Movements of Interweaving. Dance and Corporality in Times of Travel and Migration. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Brown, Joshua. 2019. “The banks are our stages: Flo6x8 and flamenco performance as protest in southern Spain.” Popular Music and Society 42(2): 230–252. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burton, William. 2010. “Inverting the text: A proposed queer translation praxis.” In Other Words 361: 54–68.Google Scholar
Calas, Elena. 1969. “D for deus and diabolus. The iconography of Hieronymus Bosch.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 27(4): 445–454. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Castro, Olga and Emek Ergun. 2017 (eds). Feminist Translation Studies. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chamberlain, Lori. 1988. “Gender and the metaphorics of translation.” Sign 13(3): 454–472. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chouinard, Marie. 2012a. bODY rEMIX. Conference. [URL]. Last Accessed 20 November 2020.
. 2012b. “Marie Chouinard, choreographer and artistic and executive director, Compagnie Marie Chouinard (1/2).” NAC Dance with Cathy Levy. Podcast. [URL]. Last Accessed 20 November 2020.
Cixous, Hélène. 1990. “Difficult joys.” In The Body and the Text. Hélène Cixous: Reading and Teaching, ed. by Helen Wilcox and Keith McWatters, 5–30. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Compagnie Marie Chouinard. 1987. L’Après-midi d’un Faune. Dance Performance. Premiered at Festival Danse Canada, Ottawa.Google Scholar
. 1993. Le Sacre du Primtemps. Dance Performance. Premiered at Centre National des Arts, Ottawa, 18 June 1993.Google Scholar
. 1994. Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un Faune. Dance Performance. Premiered at Festival International de Tapei, Taiwan.Google Scholar
. 2005. bODY_rEMIX/les_vARIATIONS_gOLDBERG. Dance Performance. Premiered at Festival Internazionale di Danza Contemporanea della Biennale di Venezia, 18 June 2005.Google Scholar
. 2016. Hieronymus Bosch. The Garden of Earthly Delights. Dance Performance. Premiered at TheaterFestival Boulevard’s-Hertogenbosch, 4 August 2016.Google Scholar
Croft, Clare (ed). 2017. Queer Dance. Meanings and Makings. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Démont, Mark. 2018. “On three modes of translating queer literary texts.” In Queering Translation, Translating the Queer. Theory, Practice, Activism, ed. by Brian James Baer and Klaus Kaindl, 188–206. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Elleström, Lars (ed). 2010. Media Borders, Multimodality and Intermediality. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Elliot, David, Marissa Silverman, and Wayne Bowman (eds). 2016. Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility and Ethical Praxis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Espinosa, Adelina and Elisa Villaverde. 2011. “The film text as palimpsest. Translating women’s gaze from page to screen. The Portrait of a Lady as a case in point.” In Translating Gender, ed. by Eleonora Federici, 227–237. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Fischer, Stefan. 2016. Hieronymus Bosch. The Complete Works. Cologne: Taschen Bibliotheca Universalis.Google Scholar
Franko, Mark. 2006. “Dance and the political: States of exception.” Dance Research Journal 39(1/2): 3–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frota, Gonçalo. 2018. “Marie Chouinard dança Bosch sem Pecado Original.” Público, available on: [URL]. Last accessed 20 November 2020.
Godard, Barbara. 1994. Collaboration in the Feminine: Writings on Women and Culture from Tessera. Ontario: Second Story Press.Google Scholar
Hall, Kira. 1999. “Performativity.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 9(1/2): 184–187. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haraway, Donna. 1995. Manifesto Cyborg. Donne, Tecnologie e Biopolitiche del Corpo. Translated by Rosy Braidotti. Milano: Feltrinelli.Google Scholar
Hilgert, Mariana. 2015. “Reflexões sobre o conceito de métafora de Paul Ricoeur e a noção de euforia da tradução.” Ci. & Trop. Recife 39(1): 53–75.Google Scholar
Ivancic, Barbara. 2016. Manuale del Traduttore. Milano: Editrice Bibliografica.Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman. 1959. “On linguistic aspects of translation.” In The Translation Studies Reader, first edition, ed. by Lawrence Venuti, 113–119. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kaindl, Klaus. 2013. “Multimodality in translation.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies, ed. by Carmen Millán and Francesca Bartrina, 257–267. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Alice. 2007. The Interpreter. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Larkosh, Christopher (eds). 2011. Re-engendering Translation: Transcultural Practice, Gender/Sexuality and the Politics of Alterity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Leung, Helen. 2016. “Always in translation: Trans cinema across languages.” Transgender Studies Quarterly 3(3/4): 412–432. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Livingston, Jennie. 1990. Paris is Burning. Miramax Films.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Moya. 2019. “Performativity and performance.” In The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory, ed. by Lisa Disch and Mary Hawkesworth, 572–592. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Louppe, Lawrence. 2010. Poetics of Contemporary Dance. Alton: Dance Books.Google Scholar
Maier, Carol. 1985. “A woman in translation, reflecting.’ Translation Review 171: 4–8. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Manson, David. 2015. Hieronymus Bosch Art Documentary with Brian Sewell. Documentary Movie. Available on: [URL]. Last accessed 20 November 2020.
Mauss, Marcel. 1935. “Techniques of the body.” Journal de Psychologie Normal et Pathologique 321: 271–293.Google Scholar
Massardier-Kenney, Françoise, Brian James Baer, and Maria Tymoczko (eds). 2016. Translators Writing, Writing Translators. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Massumi, Brian. 2002. Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham: Duke University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
May, Todd. 2003. “When is a Deleuzian becoming?” Continental Philosophy Review 361: 139–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McCormack, Jess. 2018. Choreography and Verbatim Theatre. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Michaux, Henry. 1951. Mouvements. Paris: Le Point du Jour NRF.Google Scholar
Midgelow, Vida. 2007. Reworking the Ballet. Counter Narratives and Alternative Bodies. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mills, Dana. 2016. Dance and Politics. Moving Beyond Boundaries. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Mulvey, Laura. 1999. “Visual pleasure and narrative cinema.” In Film theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, ed. by Leo Braudi and Marshall Choen, 833–844. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Noland, Carrie. 2009. Embodied Agency: Performing Gesture/Producing Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Plaza, Julio. 1987. Tradução Intersemiótica. São Paulo: Perspectiva.Google Scholar
Poirier, Isabelle. 2020. Zoom Conversation with Vanessa Montesi, 15 April.Google Scholar
Pontremoli, Alessandro. 2018. La Danza 2.0. Paesaggi Coreografici del Nuovo Millennio. Bari: Editori Laterza.Google Scholar
Rancière, Jacque. 2004. The Politics of Aesthetics. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Roy, Geff. 2016. “Translating Hijra into transgender: Performance and pehchān in India’s trans-Hijra communities.” Transgender Studies Quarterly 3 (3–4): 412–432. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schober, Regina. 2010. “Translating sounds: Intermedial exchanges in Amy Lowell’s ‘Stravinsky’s three pieces “Grotesque” for String Quartet.’” In Media Borders, Multimodality and Intermediality, ed. by Lars Elleström, 163–175. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scott, James. 1990. Domination and the Arts of Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Simon, Sherry. 1996. Gender in Translation. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Smith, Lise. 2003. “Dance and translation.” Wasafiri 18(40): 33–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, Mark Addison. 2018. “Years yet yesterday: Translating art, activism and AIDS across the visual and the verbal.” In Queering Translation, Translating the Queer. Theory, Practice, Activism, ed. by Brian James Baer and Klaus Kaindl, 206–225. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Taylor, Diana. 2016. Performance. Bogota: Instituto Emisférico de Performance y Politica. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tembeck, Tamar. 2000. “The staging of desire: A feminist portrait of Marie Chouinard.” In Proceedings of Estivale 2000: Canadian Dancing Bodies Then and Now, by Iro Tembeck, 191–198. Toronto: Dance Collection Danse.Google Scholar
Thompson, Nato. 2015. Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House.Google Scholar
Tolnay de, Charles. 1965. Hyeronimus Bosch, 2nd expanded edition. Holle Verla: Baden Baden.Google Scholar
Tomko, Linda J. 1996. “Fete accompli: gender, ‘folk dance,’ and progressive-era political ideals in New York City.” In Corporealities. Dancing Knowledge, Culture and Power, ed. by Susan Foster 159–182. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tsiakalou, Ouriana. 2018. “Dancing through the waves of feminism.” In Key Cultural Texts in Translation, ed. by Kirsten Malmkiær, Adriana Şerban, and Fransiska Louwagie, 25–34. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Venuti, Lawrence. 1995. The Translator’s Invisibility. A History of Translation. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Von Flotow, Luise. 1991. “Feminist translation: Context, practices and theories.” TTR 4(2): 69–84. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vujanovič, Ana. 2016. “Art as a bad public good.” In Artistic Citizenships: Artistry, Social Responsibility and Ethical Praxis, ed. by David Elliot et al., 104–123. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wakabayashi, Judy. 2011. “Fictional representations of author–translator relationships.” Translation Studies 4(1): 87–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Warner, Marina. 2001. Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weibel, Peter. 2015. Global Activism. At and Conflict in the 21st Century Conflict. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Wolf, Michaela. 2017. “A performative turn in translation studies? Reflections from a sociological perspective.” TranscUlturAl 9(1): 27–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Woodsworth, Judith. 2017. Telling the Story of Translation. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Montesi, Vanessa
2024. Malleable meaning. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation / Revista Internacional de Traducción 70:1-2 ► pp. 211 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 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.