Translation and the Transnational Dynamics of the Radio Play in the Low Countries

In the global dynamics of radio drama, the role of translations cannot be underestimated, considering they are a catalyst in the international circulation and renewal of the genre. In this chapter, we analyze the transnational dynamics of the Dutch and Flemish radio play. In order to grasp this dynamics, the chapter first sketches the institutional contexts of the Dutch and Flemish radio and radio play and shows the exchanges with other countries against the background of the profiles of broadcasting organizations. We offer a bird’s eye view and a general interpretation of the selection processes, demonstrating that institutional forces play a role in the negotiation out of which the translated radio plays emerge. The overview shows that the radio-play repertoire of the Low Countries particularly relied on the radio play production from the UK and Germany. Second, we analyze two translations of literary one-act plays from different languages: 1) Onder het melkwoud (1958), the translation of Under Milk Wood by the Welsh author Dylan Thomas, and 2) Yamamba (1966), the translation of the eponymous radio play by the Japanese author Shuji Terayama. Approaching translation as cultural transfer, the analysis of the two case studies focuses on effects of foreignization and domestication in both the translated text and the audiophonic realization. Drawing upon the framework of audionarratology, we demonstrate how the translation also involves the transposition of audiophonic aspects. This approach allows us to analyze how the (cultural) context of the source is reflected or refracted in the aesthetic choices of the radio plays (i.e., music, language, voice, etc.).