Translation, Adaptation and Feminism: Revealing ‘A Familiar Reflex of the Repressed’ in Deirdre Kinahan’s The Unmanageable Sisters

Abstract

Michel Tremblay’s landmark entry into Québécois theatrical history with Les Belles-sœurs ( LBS) created a sensation through its social critique alongside unabashedly staging joual , a sociolect of Québécois-French originating in working-class neighbourhoods of Montreal. Tremblay’s 1968 play influenced Québécois dramaturgy not only through the use of joual, but also through its focus on female characters and themes that had heretofore been marginalized. In addition to tying language to Québécois cultural identity, Tremblay turns a critical eye on the culture and its historical contexts in light of Quebec’s secularizing Quiet Revolution (c. 1960–70). However, as Erin Hurley observes, in order to emphasize the cultural, linguistic and economic marginalization experienced by the Québécois population, critics of the play tended to ‘minimize the differences between stage reality and social reality’ creating a ‘reflective reading invested in text-context correspondences’ which had the effect of diminishing gender issues that were visible in the play’s all-woman cast.