Barbara Bray and Samuel Beckett as ‘Translaborators’: The Beckett – Duras – Bray Connection

Abstract

Revisiting the romantic myth of the isolated man of letters in his Ussy-Ivory Tower, this chapter highlights some of the translatory collaborative processes in which Beckett was involved. Barbara Bray, whom Beckett met at the BBC in 1956, was then a script editor. At the BBC she translated, adapted and produced a great many texts from the French language. Beckett offered his help with this, as is testified by his lengthy and detailed remarks on Bray’s version of The Square by Duras in an unpublished 1957 letter. In return, it is likely he was influenced by Duras through the agency of Bray. What is more, the correspondence attests to the fact that Bray extensively and systematically helped Beckett with self-translating. Investigation of this collaborative translation highlights the minoritising process (Deleuze) that the art of (self-)translation involved for both Bray and Beckett via Duras.