Culture, Education and Politics: Greek and Roman Comedy in Afrikaans

Van Zyl Smit, Betine

Abstract

Afrikaans became an official language of the Union of South Africa in 1925. Many works of the Western canon that had been brought to the country by the colonial powers were translated into the new language. To boost the prestige of the language and to broaden the educational prospects of Afrikaans speakers, ancient dramas were translated into Afrikaans. In the second half of the 20thcentury, several comedies of Aristophanes (Frogs, Birds, Peace and Lysistrata) were translated or adapted, along with some of Plautus’ comedies. This paper examines how translators and adaptors transformed the ancient comedies to entertain contemporary South African audiences. Deeper resonances of some versions in different political contexts are also investigated.

Citation

Van Zyl Smit, B. (2014). Culture, Education and Politics: Greek and Roman Comedy in Afrikaans. In S. D. Olson (Ed.), Ancient Comedy and Reception (984-999). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614511250.984

• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Feb 10, 2014
• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Pages: 984-999
• Edition: first
• Book Title: Ancient Comedy and Reception
• ISBN: 9781614511663
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614511250.984
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1094057
• Publisher URL: https://www.degruyter.com/view/books/9781614511250/9781614511250.984/9781614511250.984.xml