The publication of the latest JoSTrans thematic issue is always something to be celebrated. But to do so at the close of one of the most difficult years many of us will have known, represents all the more significant an achievement. 2020 has been a year of unprecedented challenge, but it has also been a year in which we have witnessed the emergence of new ways of working and new ways of thinking, and this is evident in the fresh and forward-looking content we commit to you in this latest round of publications.
This thematic issue, edited by Francis Mus and Sarah Neelsen, and entitled ‘Translation and plurisemiotic practices’ is both a salient appraisal of what has come before, but also an important glimpse into the future of the field. In these times of unprecedented difficulty, the production of this special issue is testament to the continued commitment of colleagues to the field.
Together with detailed introductions from editors Francis Mus and Sarah Neelsen, this issue engages with translation in its widest understanding, and across eight articles includes contributions on translation and its multiple connections with art and visual culture, performance art, and live performance in its various forms. Articles from Yves Gambier, Saulė Juzelėnienė and Saulé Petroniené, and from Ayelet Kohn and Rachel Weissbrod, investigate translational manifestations in visual culture, with case studies of mural painting and modern art respectively, while articles by Kerstin Hausbei and Vanessa Montesi consider translation and its relationship with adaptation. Hausbei explores the movement from Viennese popular theatre to mimodrama, and Vanessa Montesi investigates the translation of a sixteenth-century painting into modern day performance art. The remainder of the issue’s contributions coalesce around the question of live performance. Lucile Desblache considers the relationship between translation and live music on stage, while Nina Reviers, Hanne Roofthooft, and Aline Remael address the role of audio introductions in the context of contemporary stage performance, and Thora Tenbrink and Kate Lawrence examine translation processes at work in a multimodal stage adaptation of children’s drawings. A final contribution from Hao Lin sheds important light on the plurisemiotic practice of signed Chinese poetry.
The issue concludes with seven book reviews, and two interviews, one with Lucile Desblache and the other with Julie Chateauvert
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