| Abstract |
This paper explores and lays bare how the study of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's
Dream in its translation or adaptation brings artistic and theatrical invigoration and opens up
possibilities of dialogues between the local and western cultures. Zeroing-in on Sining
Kambayoka's Usa ka Damgo, this study also discusses how the translated work exemplifies this
opportunity for creative invigoration in theater and the potential for building an avenue to connect
vastly distant cultures as it resituates A Midsummer Night's Dream, a cultural product from the
west, into not one but two Philippine cultures - Cebuano and Maranao.
This paper's purpose is anchored on this opportunity and potential: to investigate Sining
Kambayoka's practice of translating and adapting not only on the linguistic level of translation,
but also on the often neglected yet more crucial aspect of translation, cultural mediation. The
paper concentrates on the cultural transformation that occurs in the transfer between the source
and the target text. Particularly, the paper examines how culture is negotiated in the translation
process to suit the cultural context, and the target audience of the performance. By understanding
how a narrative set in a different period and distant place converses with the local Maranao setting,
it is then possible to assess this particular translation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. |
Mindanao State
University - Iligan Institute of Technology