Hic et nunc: Amy Richlin's Iran Man and the ethics of translating Plautus

Abstract

Willing to challenge the classical tradition, Richlin (2005) adapted the Latin play Persa by Plautus to a contemporary context using American slang and pop culture. Richlin aims at making Roman comedy performable, popular and funny again whether onstage or in the classroom. Is her radical modernisation a form of domestication that is often criticized in translation studies for being unfaithful and unethical? Based upon a comparison between the original Latin text and Richlin’s version, this paper questions the ethics of faithfulness which play a major role in translation terminology, a system determined by the traditional polarity between domestication and foreignization. By highlighting the ludic nature of Plautus’ comedy (especially the ongoing joke with Greek culture and language), this paper argues that using modern transposition is a heavily Plautine strategy suitable for recovering the immediacy of comedy. a performance ( ludicrum ) of Clara She is working on a thesis in Comparative Literature on the subjects of translating classical texts today and using translation as a tool for teaching Classics. Based on an interdisciplinary approach between classical phi-lology and reception studies, she works on translating Roman comedy for a mainstream audience with the example of her own French adaptation of Miles gloriosus by Plautus. She is also interested in the reception of the Antiquity in pop culture. She currently teaches Latin courses at the Classics Department of Aix-Marseille University.