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Literary Translation in Soviet Latvia: On Latvian Publications of J. Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath
Abstract
In the modern literary science, the issues connected with Soviet regime (censorship, interaction between ideology and literature, translation policy etc.) and its impact on public awareness and national culture are of great scientific importance. The present study examines and in the comparative perspective evaluates peculiarities of literary translation in oppressive socio-political circumstances experienced by Latvia during the Soviet occupation (1940-1941; 1944/45-1990/91). The focus is on John Steinbecks novel The Grapes of Wrath which was originally published in 1939 in the United States of America. The novel is well known for its realistic and tragic depiction of the horrors of the Great Depression. In Latvian The Grapes of Wrath was published twice: in 1941 in Herta Lindbergas translation and in 1963 in Zelma Stanas translation. Using the comparativist approach, the translations are juxtaposed with the text in the original language (English) and, due to the certain cultural, social and political realities Latvia was experiencing during the Soviet occupation, with the translation in Russian carried out by N. Volzhina in 1940; moreover, both of the Latvian translation variants of the novel are contrastively examined. The cultural-historical view and historical discourse analysis allow not only to examine literary translation in historical and cultural context, but also identify and explain textual shifts and misinterpretations dictated by ideology of the certain time period. The relevance of differences of translation strategies to ideological impact is analysed. Close sensitive reading of the text in source and target language reveals that translation strategies applied for the Latvian publications differ. Ideological manipulation is more pronounced in the publication of 1963. Several manipulative strategies were identified: deletion, omission, substitution, and antonymous translation.
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References12
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