Scholarly record
THE RECEPTION OF OSCAR WILDE IN LATVIA
Abstract
The paper analyses the reception of the Irish-born British writer Oscar Wilde (18541900) in Latvia following the translations of his works into Latvian and the most vivid expressions in Latvian authors creative writing. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the poetics of cross-cultural influences in Latvia was very diverse: one of the most striking being the aesthetic vector marked by the crucial influence of Wildes personality and his literary heritage. The dialogue held between Latvian national and foreign cultures served not only as a means for the nations self-realization, but developed also a new understanding of the role of art. The research is based on the reception theory that interprets literature as a process of aesthetic communication the participants of which are three logically distinguishable entities author, text, and recipient (reader, critic, audience) attributing to the last one the status of both receiver and mediator. Using a complex of research methods (comparative, cultural-historical, biographical, structural-semiotic), the main attention in the paper is paid to the ways of accumulation of a foreign text focusing also on the readiness of the target (Latvian) culture to receive the novel influences by the specific author (Oscar Wilde) and to integrate them in ones own (Latvian) cultural space. Based on foreignization and domestication (L. Venuti) strategies in intercultural translation any text is regarded as an open structure and a continuous process of its perception, thus a productive cognition takes place (H. R. Jauss). As a result of intercultural communication between foreign literature and/or its famous mythologized representative and a domestic literature, modifications in recipients attitudes, behaviours, and creative writing in different time periods (a chronological review of reception) are observed. The research allowed concluding that infatuation with Wildes ideas in Latvia never ceased and the reception occurs under the influence of two parallel flows: 1) in the discourse related to cultural and literary elitism Symbolism and Modernism (a novel, plays); 2) as a component of mass literature (fairytales and other stories for children and youth).
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References11
Liviu Papadima, Literary Reception Theories: A Review. Dacoromania litteraria, Vol. II, 2015, p. 142, 149 [pp. 134–162].
Holub R. C., Reception Theory: A Critical Introduction, London and New York: Methuen, 1984, p. 10.
Jauss H. R., The Theory of Reception: A Retrospective of its Unrecognized Prehistory. Collier P. and Geyer-Ryan H. (eds.) Literary Theory Today, Ithaca, New-York: Cornell University Press, 1990, p. 53 [pp. 53–73].
Even-Zohar I., The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem, Venuti L. (ed.) The Translation Studies Reader, London and New York: Routledge, 2000, p. 193, 194 [pp. 192–197].
Zhou Wangyue, Literary Translation from Perspective of Reception Theory: The Case Study of Three Versions of Na Han. Studies in Literature and Language, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2013, p. 19 [pp. 19–25].
Yang W., Brief Study on Domestication and Foreignization in Translation, Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 2010, pp. 77–80.
Berman A., L’épreuve de l’étranger: Culture et traduction dans l’Allemagne romantique: Herder, Goethe, Schlegel, Novalis, Humboldt, Schleiermacher, Hölderlin, Paris: Gallimard, 1984.
Levý J., Iskusstvo perevoda, Moskva: Progress, 1974, s. 47–48.
Kačāne I., Oskars Vailds: Latvijas “oskariāna”, Daugavpils: Daugavpils Universitātes Akadēmiskais apgāds “Saule”, 2015. The Timeline of the Latvian Reception of Oscar Wilde accessible online: https://oscholars.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/kacane_oskars-vailds_druka.pdf [pp. 309–334]. (accessed February 6, 2017).
Kacane I., Victorian Aestheticism and the Autonomy of Art: The Impact of Oscar Wilde, Zuģicka I. (resp. ed.) Daugavpils Universitātes 58. starptautiskās zinātniskās konferences rakstu krājums. C. daļa “Humanitārās zinātnes” = Proceedings of the 58th International Scientific Conference of Daugavpils University. Part C “Humanities”. Daugavpils: Daugavpils Universitāte, 2016, pp. 47–53. Accessible online: https://dukonference.lv/files/proceedings_of_conf/978-9984-14-780-2_58%20konf%20kraj_C_Hum%20zin.pdf (accessed February 6, 2017).
Berelis G., Guntis Berelis vērtē, Karogs, Nr. 3, 2006, p. 203.
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.
