| dc.description.abstract | The world of fiction poses many questions to those who delve into it. As much as we try to fictionalize a story, we always find a resemblance with some part of our reality, of our humanity. In fact, it is through literature that we are able to find truth and essence. Overcoming the barrier of language has led to the dissemination of great literary works, allowing them to become timeless and universal. This is particularly true in theatre. From William Shakespeare’s comedies to Arthur Miller’s drama, a great number of plays have found international audiences and have overcome the restrictions of time. This, of course, has implied carrying out a series of changes to the original versions of the plays to ensure adaptability to modern audiences. There is undoubtedly great appeal in sharing stories that transcend borders. This can be seen in the efforts of afro-descendant peoples around the world who share their experiences as different cultures with similar histories.
Among the works of African American writers, and specifically in the field of theatre, August Wilson, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a highly acclaimed playwright who dramatizes aspects of the African American experience in his writings. The Piano Lesson, one of his main plays that received the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is well-known among theatre academics and enthusiasts, who become immersed in the various themes concerning the historical struggles undergone by African Americans. One of the most interesting aspects in The Piano Lesson consists of the way Wilson portrays an African American dialect by including particular morphosyntactic elements. To identify and classify these elements will allow for an analysis of the grammatical nature of this dialect. Translators have been reluctant to translate literary dialects, especially those that pertain to a specific community and region, due to the challenges and limited options at hand. Although the most common solution is to standardize the translation (use a standard variety for the source text), there are other solutions that may be applied and that translators should consider when translating literary dialects, particularly because standardization implies losing an important feature of the original text and the author’s message. In principle, the translator should understand the thought and purpose behind writing in dialect in order to make decisions accordingly. Finding different translation solutions will allow translators to use or develop new guides regarding how to approach the process of translating other works of fiction that use African American English (AAE). | |
