Hysteria, Impropriety and Presence: Towards A Feminist Approach to Intersemiotic Translation

Through the exegesis of an intersemiotic translation of Hélène Cixous’ novel Inside (1969/1986) into theatre directed by the author, this chapter suggests a return to the figure of the hysteric to develop a feminist approach to the practice of intersemiotic translation. The approach outlined is twofold: firstly, the chapter suggests methods for translating Cixous’ hysteric aesthetic from prose to the stage, concentrating in particular on her use of vibrating signifiers and her methods for producing a synaesthetic experience of signs’ materiality. In discussing this, attention is paid to the differences between prose writing and theatre in regard to the materiality of their semiotic stuff. It discusses how theatre in its medium-specificity, as an artform that is inextricably bound up in time and that is characterised by a simultaneity and density of different sign systems, might be able to produce analogous, though not identical, effects and affects to Cixous’ prose. Secondly, the chapter discusses how the practice of intersemiotic translation itself might be considered both hysterical and potentially feminist by contextualising the practical research in relation to feminist theories of translation pioneered by translators such as Barbara Godard. In doing so, this chapter contributes to the emerging discourse of intersemiotic translation by offering a politicised (and hystericized) approach to it.