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DER PROZESS AND LE PROCES: A STUDY IN DRAMATIC ADAPTATION THE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF KAFKA'S Der Prozess and its French theatrical version Le Proces must be carried out on two distinct levels: culture and genre. Not only did the German work have to be adapted for a French audience, but the content of the novel had to be fitted to the requirements of the stage. The resulting drama is all the more worthy of analysis in that it represents the combined efforts of a ranking novelist and an actor-director with an international reputation, of Andre Gide and Jean-Louis Barrault. The existence of Le Proces may be traced back to a fortuitous encounter during World War II: in May 1942, Gide was passing through Marseilles on his way to Tunis when he made the acquainttance of Barrault and his wife Madeleine Renaud.1 During the dinner conversation, Barrault mentioned his intention of presenting a dramatic version of Der Prozess and requested Gide's aid. In 1945 Gide received the Barrault scenario which fired his enthusiasm: Beaucoup plus conscient que moi des ressources et des possibilites de la mise en scene, il [Barrault] affrontait les pires difficultes avec une hardiesse, une temerite ,que, seul, je n'aurais point osees, mais que, soutenu par lui, je risquais de tout coeur. II ne s'agissait plus que de couvrir de chair Ie squelette qu'il m'apportait .2 * * * * Let us first consider the cross-cultural tranformation encountered in adapting a German work for a French audience. Although the problems of translation may be treated on the mechanical and esthetic planes, Le Proces can only be studied on the latter level, if credence is given to the play's subtitle: "une piece tiree du roman de Kafka (traduction Vialatte)." Admittedly, Barrault's knowledge of German was slight. Gide, though, had been raised by a German-speaking Swiss nurse and as a young man attempted several German translations. In addition he would read Goethe, the Romanticists, and Rilke only in the original.S However, in his later years, Gide was much more 1 Gide, Journal I939-I949, Bibliotheque de Ia Pleiade (Paris, 1954), p. u8. 2 Gide and Barrault, Le Proces (Paris, 1947), p. 8. (Future references to this edition will be made in the text and preceded by the notation "GB.") S Renee Lang, Andre Gide et la pensee allemande (Paris, 1949), ch. 8. 87 88 MODERN DRAMA May confident of his English and lost his fluency in German; whenever possible he conversed with his German friends in French.4 Although he might well have had simultaneous recourse to the original German, Gide himself avows his close reliance on Vialatte's translation in writing Le Proces. (see GB:8-g) The comparison of translation and play brings to light only a few conscious variations. Whereas Vialatte retained the setting and the atmosphere of daily life in a "Czechoslovakian" city, Gide and Barrault seemingly transferred the action to "Paris" to facilitate the identification of the French spectators with the characters on the·stage. One difference occurs in Act I, Scene 2, where Madame Grubach criticizes Mademoiselle Biirstner for receiving several male visitors in her room: "Elle re~oit un peu n'importe qui chez eUe; •.. " (GB:54) In the novel, however, Frau Grubach merely complains that she has noticed Fraulein Biirstner walking in the street with two different men: "Ich habe sie diesem Monat schon zweimal in entlegenen Strassen und immer mit einem andern Herrn gesehen."5 The Parisian landlady, apparently less easily scandalized than her Prague countererpart, requires more "evidence" before jumping to conclusions . The other variant between the original German and the French version lies in K's manner of expression: whereas in the novel K speaks a fairly literary and highly conservative German, interspersed with philosophic reflections, in the play K is much more excitable and uses everyday slang. For example, in the play when K awakens and misses his breakfast, he exclaims: Eh bien, alorsl . . . Alors quoi? . . . Et mon chocolat? . . . Ahl ~aJ par exemple . .. C'est un peu fort: madame Grubach qui m'oublie . . . et qui va me mettre en retard . . . Qu'est-ce qu'elle fiche, madame Grubach...

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