Barbara Bray, a Woman of Letters

Translator, Radio Producer, Scriptwriter, Critic, and Theatre Director
1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-81427-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 230 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 481 g

Reihe: Routledge Research in Women's Literature

Barbara Bray (1924-2010) was an English woman of letters who translated some hundred novels, plays, and essays from French to English and was Marguerite Duras’s preferred translator. She also collaborated with some of the most prestigious directors and playwrights of the 20th century – Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett, Joseph Losey, and Franco Zeffirelli – helping them write screenplays and radioplays. This literary biography (re)evaluates in a textual, sociological, and historical perspective the social role of an English writer and translator in the history of ideas and contemporary art. Highlighting Bray’s influence in cultural transfers of ideas and literatures between France, Great Britain, and the United States, it renders visible the yet unrecognised work of a female mediator and creator. It nourishes the debate about women’s public voice and the representation of women in the media industries and contributes to enrich the ‘other’ history that is being currently written by feminist scholars around the world.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sardin, Pascale

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Übersetzungswissenschaft, Translatologie, Dolmetschen
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Mediensoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturgeschichte und Literaturkritik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures

 

Foreword by Francesca Bray

 

Acknowledgments

 

List of acronyms and abbreviations

 

1. Introduction – ‘Transcending cultural differences’ (1924-1952)

2. Working as Script Editor during the ‘Golden Age’ of radio drama in the 1950s

BBC radio before and after the War

Bray as Script Editor

Working with radio drama

Meeting Samuel Beckett

Promoting Harold Pinter

A Broker of French Culture

The art of adapting foreign pieces for radio

On Leaving the BBC

3. Freelancing for BBC radio in the 1960s

Moving to Paris

Continuity and Change

Original Writing

Working with Talks and Features

A Humanist and a Feminist at Work

Fighting for her Rights

4. Working with the moving image in the 1970s

From BBC radio to BBC TV (1964-1968)

‘Transposing’ Proust’s ‘story of a vocation’

Galileo

Ibn Saud

An Enabler

5. A Celebrated Translator in the 1980s

Prizes and recognition

Translators and the publishing industry

The Battle of The Lover

From Laurence Sterne to… Nestor Burma

‘Translaborating’ with Samuel Beckett

6. Conclusion – Dear Conjunction (1991-2010)

A Bilingual Theatre Company in Paris

A Literary Activist

 

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Pascale Sardin is Professor of English Literature and Translation Studies at Bordeaux Montaigne University (France). She is the author of several books on Samuel Beckett and has edited two volumes of the journal Palimpsestes. With José Francisco Fernández, she edited Samuel Beckett and the Languages of the World (2021). Recently, she also coedited Sexe and Gender in Samuel Beckett/Sexe et genre chez Samuel Beckett, Samuel Beckett Today /Aujourd’hui, 34 (1), 2022.