The (re)working of dramatic language in Janet Suzman's The Free State

Abstract

In her play The Free State: A South African Response to Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” Janet Suzman took Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and transposed it into post-1994 South African idiom. A process of “acculturation” was thus used by Suzman, and she chose to change every element of the foreign/source text, The Cherry Orchard, when writing The Free State: setting, characters and language. In this article I focus on how Suzman “reworked” the original dramatic dialogue of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard in her play The Free State by highlighting two issues: firstly, the use of dramatic utterances in the play and secondly, the discourse context(s) of the play. The discussion is placed within the context of work done by recent studies on dramatic language (for example by D. Birch, D. Burton, Vimala Herman, and others), which also incorporates studies in the field of discourse analysis. Opsomming Janet Suzman het in haar drama The Free State: A South African Response to Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” Chekhov se The Cherry Orchard geneem en dit oorgeplaas in ’n post-1994 Suid-Afrikaanse idioom. ’n Proses van “akkulturasie” is deur Suzman gevolg en sy het gekies om elke aspek van die vreemde/bronteks, The Cherry Orchard, te verander na The Free State: plasing, karakters en taalgebruik. In hierdie artikel fokus ek op hoe Suzman die oorspronklike dramatiese dialoog van Chekhov se The Cherry Orchard “herwerk” het deur twee aspekte uit te lig, naamlik, eerstens die gebruik van dramatiese uitinge in die drama, en tweedens, die diskoers konteks(te) van die drama. Die bespreking is geplaas binne die konteks van werk wat gedoen is in resente studies oor dramatiese taalgebruik (byvoorbeeld deur D. Birch, D. Burton, Vimala Herman, en andere), wat ook die veld van diskoersanalise omvat.