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Translating Ancient Drama

The APGRD's Translating Ancient Drama project explores the essential role played by translation in the reception of ancient comedy and tragedy. The central aim of the project is to research the circulation of ancient dramatic texts through different times, linguistic areas and cultures.

The project augments and supplements the APGRD’s performance database by including translations of ancient plays into a number of European vernacular languages. The information provided proves an invaluable tool for researchers working in a wide range of disciplines, including Modern Literary Studies, Linguistics, Comparative Literature, Classics, Theatre Studies, History of Scholarship, History of Ideas and History of the Book. It equally enables examination of parallels and differences in the patterns of the reception of the ancient texts across time and place, including geographical areas beyond Europe through the presence of these vernaculars in the former colonies. At the same time, it also permits analysis of cross-cultural exchanges, whether by conscious appropriation, shameless recycling and/or literary piracy of translations in other European vernaculars.

The APGRD’s Translating Ancient Drama project also hosts seminar series and events, which bring academics of classical reception and translation studies alongside playwrights as well as scholar-translators for the stage. They are thus able to share and foster reflection on the variety of translation practices and the art of translating for the stage.

Publications

Translating Greek Drama in Early Modern Europe: Theory and Practice (15th-16th centuries), co-edited by Malika Bastin-Hammou, Giovanna Di Martino, Cécile Dudouyt, and Lucy Jackson; Berlin: De Gruyter (2023).

Digital developments

Including our searchable online database of French translations and Early Modern Digital Library. Find out more about the project's digital developments >>

Translating Ancient Greek Drama in the Early Modern Period

A research strand which began in 2018 and is aimed at understanding the early modern reception of ancient drama from a cross-cultural, multilingual, and transnational perspective. Find out  more information about Translating Ancient Greek Drama in the Early Modern Period >>

Workshops

To date, we have run numerous workshops relating to this project. Read the full list and details of our research workshops >>

Events

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