Seminar in Petersburg for translators of Russian literature

[Valentino, Russell]

Dear Robert,

Working backwards from the list:

I would refer them to John O'Brien's series of articles for Context Magazine on the sorry state of publishing translations in English. The first one is here: http://www.centerforbookculture.org/context/no14/simpleQ.html. Links to the others are at the end. His comments have mostly to do with contemporary literature, and Dalkey is a mid-size publisher with its own aesthetic, so small and big houses are in slightly different situations respectively, as are those with more popular tastes or those that do primarily poetry. But it's a start. Plus, I'm sure the Piter folks will like to hear how, in O'Brien's opinion, the Finns know how to do this (article three in his series).

What we don't need is another gateway with its own potential bottlenecks. If they're going to facilitate, let them do that: fly editors over to meet with Russian writers and editors; provide publishing subsidies and/or funds for author/translator tours; run workshops or partner with others to do so; host conferences; run an on-line journal or at least keep a well-updated list of works that they think need to be translated or retranslated. They could also run a translation residency like those done in Banff or at Villa Gillet (in partnership with PEN American Center) in Lyon.

Those are mostly about question 5.

SEELANGS has had quite a bit of discussion of items that would relate to question 4 (I won't add to that).

Question 3 seems to come pretty clearly out of the sobranie sochinenii tradition of Soviet publishing. Aside from big collections of Tolstoy done many years ago, it doesn't seem to apply to publishing in the U.S. today, or at least very rarely.

2 and 1 are both very important and related, IMO, especially in the relatively decentralized translation system here, where translators often start a project and then look for a publisher afterward (without it being commissioned). It means translators take on a pretty powerful role in advancing or suppressing certain works, esp. when so few translations are published. They of course don't feel like they have any power, but that's beside the point. They and--when they're lucky--their publishers help to shape the image of Russia that people read about in books and journals.

Sorry this became so long. Thank you for offering to communicate some of these thoughts to the conference organizers. I hope they're in a position to do some good work.

Russell

Russell Scott Valentino
Assoc. Professor of Slavic & Comparative Literature
Interim Executive Director
Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry
http://poroi.grad.uiowa.edu
University of Iowa
319.353.2193

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [mailto:SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Robert Chandler
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 2:15 AM
To: SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU
Subject: [SEELANGS] Seminar in Petersburg for translators of Russian literature

Dear all,

I am going in early November to a seminar in Petersburg, arranged by the
Likhachev Foundation together with the Pushkinsky dom, for translators of
Russian literature into different languages.

We are supposed to be attempting to answer the following questions:

 
1. Kak segodnya obstoyat dela s perevodom russkoi klassicheskoi i
sovremennoi literatury, prozy i poezii, na yazyk Vashei strany?
 
2. Rol¹ perevodchikov russkoi literatury v populyarizacii obraza Rossii.
 
3. Tradicii massovyh i akademicheskih izdaniy russkoi perevodnoi literatury
vchera i segodnya. Russkaya literature na sovremennom knizhnom rynke.
 
4. Opyt perevoda trudnyh v yazykovom i stilisticheskom otnoshenii tekstov i
pisatelei (byliny, literatura domongolskoi Rusi, Gogol, Leskov, Andrei
Belyi, Platonov i dr.).
 
5. V chem mozhet sostoyat sodeistvie Mezhdunarodnogo Centra perevodchikov
russkoi literatury rabote perevodchikov segodnya? Kakie obuchauyshie
programmy, po Vashemu mneniu, mogut byt polezny?

If any of you have anything you would like me to convey to this seminar,
I¹ll be only too happy to do so!

Best wishes,

Robert

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