The Transition of Two Czechoslovak Čapek’s Plays in the US and the UK in the 1920s/1930s: Intercultural Contexts, Contents and Political Impacts

The project will synthetically explore the artistic, cultural, and political aspects of the transfer of two plays by the Čapek brothers into the cultures of the USA and the United Kingdom. At the conclusion of a three-year archival, textual, and translation-oriented research effort, a report will be presented on the evolution of the texts of R.U.R. and Ze života hmyzu, on their English translations, English-language adaptations, on the role of censorship, and the early critical, cultural and also political reception. 

Simultaneously, an intercultural model of the entire transfer case will be proposed, revealing not only the textual and theatrical history of the plays but also highlighting previously little-known relationships between the “mobilizers” of the transfer—specific individuals and institutions that catalyzed this complex process.