The Intersemiotic Study of Translation from Page to Stage: The Farsi Translation of Macbeth for Stage Adaptation from the Perspective of Peirceʼs Model

Intersemiotic translation, which can happen in the process of the translation of drama for theatre, can turn more complicated when the verbal sign system of drama has already undergone interlingual translation. The purpose of this study is to find the intersemiotic changes of translation from page to stage and to show the changes of indexical, iconic, and symbolic signs in the process of intersemiotic translation of the already interlingually translated verbal signs. In this regard, Shakespeareʼs Macbeth (1606) and its theatrical performance directed by Reza Servati (2010) were selected as the corpus and Peirceʼs model was chosen as the theoretical framework. The findings of this research demonstrate that all levels of iconical, indexical, and symbolic signs are applicable to the semiotic analysis of the performance. However, there should be a cautious generalization regarding the transfer of iconic signs. The theoretical model of this study can be used to study verbal sign variations of other literary works and other literary genres once they are intersemiotically translated to and adapted for other sign systems such as audio (like music), visual (like painting), and audio-visual (like film).