TRANSLATING DRAMA AS A LITERARY GENRE: CHALLENGES, STRATEGIES AND TRANSFORMATIONS

This paper explores the translation of drama as a distinct literary genre, examining its unique features, the theoretical underpinnings of drama-translation, practical challenges, strategies of adaptation, and implications for theatrical performance and intercultural communication. While translation studies often focus on prose or poetry, drama presents a dual nature: it exists both as a text and as a performance event. As such, translating drama demands attention not only to language but also to action, stage dynamics, performability, cultural context, and audience reception. Drawing on recent scholarship and case studies, the paper discusses genre-specific issues such as speakability, performability, untranslatability, and the role of the translator as dramatist. It further surveys the key strategies employed in drama translation, including adaptation, acculturation, domestication, foreignisation, and creative rewriting. The discussion also touches upon how dramatic translation functions within the literary polysystem and theatrical systems. Finally, the paper argues that drama translation is an act of cultural mediation which requires the translator to balance fidelity to the source text with the demands of target culture, stage— and medium. The conclusion highlights key areas for further research, including the impact of digital media and cross-lingual theatre, and calls for more integrative frameworks linking translation studies and theatre theory.