Percezione e ruolo delle lingue straniere e dell’arabo standard in alcune commedie di Ziad Rahbani

Abstract

This paper aims at analysing various passages from some of the most famous comedies by Lebanese playwright Ziad Rahbani, characterized by the use of different languages, language varieties and Modern Standard Arabic mixed with Lebanese Arabic. All of these extracts have been transcribed and translated into Italian, so that a linguistic analysis and review about peculiar leitmotivs of Ziad’s comedies can be outlined. Furthermore, this analysis has turned out to be useful in order to highlight the value, the importance and the effects of the above-mentioned elements within the comedies. It proves the relationship between the use of language and the art of theater. Indeed, the analysis of the discourse in the plays cannot be done without taking into account the stakes of the staging and the comic effect. Also, this analysis may as well serve as food for thought for the reader as far as limits and challenges met in translation are concerned.