The censorship of theatre translations under Franco: the 1960s

Abstract

Over the last decade, Spain's censorship records have been used by translation studies scholars as the main source to reconstruct the history of translated culture. Censorship archives are virtually the only source of information to research the history of theatre translations in Spain, since they provide access to materials that range from contextual information to actual manuscripts (from draft versions to final censored texts). This contribution will provide a glimpse into the history of theatre translations in the 1960s, a period of political openness from within the Ministry in charge of theatre censorship and of intense activity on Spanish stages. Using textual and contextual evidence gathered from Spanish censorship archives, the actual process that led to the 1966 stage production of Albee's Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? will help illustrate how play scripts were evaluated when submitted to the censors’ ideologically-biased scrutiny and to what extent ideological manipulation was forced into the production script. Such evidence shows that foreign plays were integrated in to Spanish theatre through translation and adaptation. It also reveals the role of censors, stage directors and professional translators in the censorship process that can be traced from the actual records.