Susan Blattès (Grenoble-Alpes), Marianne Drugeon (Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3), Claire Hélie (Lille), Marie Nadia Karsky (Paris 8), Estelle Rivier-Arnaud (Grenoble-Alpes), Agathe Torti-Alcayaga (Paris Sorbonne Nord), The Gut Girls BY Sarah Daniels, experiencing collaborative translation

The seminar will be in hybrid and bilingual format, we had much rather you were there with us in the flesh, but do not hesitate to join us on zoom:

https://univ-montp3-fr.zoom.us/j/99954603932?pwd=UUVCRUVDbUNCZmlIRWhQd29vbmo1UT09

Brief synopsis of The Gut Girls :

The play tells the story of a small community, the “Gut Girls”, who work in a gutting shed at Deptford cattle market, in the South East of London in 1900. This work means they remain at the margins of society, but it also gives them some autonomy, gritty and distasteful as it is: the salary is higher than what women usually get, and they are, up to a point, considered equal to men. Because the work is hard, they use humour and irony to their heart’s content, and try to avoid Lady Helena’s club, which she has set up to teach them how to speak and behave properly. Unfortunately, the cattle market is soon to close, in the wake of progress in refrigerating meat. Each “Gut Girl” will have to find another way to survive: some will marry, most will become servants – and one of them may die as a consequence – and some will find jobs in a factory. Patriarchy, and capitalism, which had been questioned and jeopardised for a time by the small community of the “Gut Girls’, close down upon them, except perhaps one, who now works in a factory where they have a union.

Our Project:

We are a team of six researchers and translators from different universities, and we have set up to translate the play over the last year in a cooperative and collaborative way. We will present our work from different angles: its method (how is it possible for six translators to work together on the same text?), its translation (the play is riddled with puns linked to a particular sociolect, that of the working class in 1900 London) and its historical and literary context (But who are the “Gut Girls, and what does their work tell us?)

                                   Schonell Theatre, 2019

Connecticut Repertory Theatre, 2004