Intertextuality and ‘version’,‘adaptation’ ‘rewrite’: Developing topics in drama translation

In this paper my attention will focus on two closely related issues in drama translation, namely intertextuality and the definition of what has been variously termed as ‘version’, ‘adaptation’, or ‘rewrite’. Approaches to playtexts have been variously seen as ‘processes of acculturation’; ‘major adjustments’;‘issues of cultural relocations’; or as ‘reconfigured text (as performance’). The concept of intertextuality will be explored thoroughly in its wider theoretical context, including discourse analysis and literary criticism, to see how it becomes relevant for the process of translation, and drama translation in particular. Furthermore, version, rewrite and adaptation, as a product of intertextuality, will be analysed in the attempt to reach some tentative conclusions on the state-of-the-art on this topic.