concept
Relabeled Foreign Farce (translation plagiarism)
relabeled farce
also: подтасовывать под русские нравы
The period practice, satirized here, of taking a French or German comedy or vaudeville, having it crudely translated (often by an uncredited relative or a cheaply hired student), swapping foreign names and details for Russian ones, and passing the result off as an original play -- Chekhov's target in "The Playwright."
Reading notes
- The Playwright §21 какая-нибудь французская или немецкая штучка
By the 1880s the Russian stage, and especially its popular and provincial houses, depended heavily on translated and adapted French and German vaudevilles and farces -- so much so that critics of the day complained the native repertoire was being crowded out. A cottage industry of quick, uncredited translation (often by relatives, students, or hacks working for a few rubles) fed this demand; the 'playwright' here is exposed as doing nothing but commissioning such a translation and swapping in Russian names, the bare minimum of "adaptation" (переделка) that period custom and copyright practice allowed a borrower to claim the result as his own new work.
Mentioned in 0 works (0 mentions)
No recorded mentions yet.