Translated literature as an imagological and ideological tool: On the materials of the periodical Kavkaz (1846-1884)

Translated literature in the pre-revolutionary periodicals of the regions of the Russian Empire actively developed since the 1840s under the influence of several factors: the legislative, political, socioeconomic conditions of the region; ethnic and everyday traditions; the degree of cultural development of the peoples inhabiting a region, etc. In this regard, an interesting picture developed in Tiflis, the center of the Caucasian governorship, which became the cultural capital of many peoples of the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. The central role here was played by the newspaper Kavkaz [The Caucasus], which appeared as a private publication in 1846, and in 1850 became the property of the office of the Caucasian governor’s office and, in fact, together with the local provincial newspaper Zakavkazskiy Vestnik [Transcaucasian Bulletin], which had been published since 1838, became the second official body of the Caucasian governorship. The aim of this article is to identify and analyze the corpus of translated fiction in the Kavkaz newspaper in terms of cultural geography, thematic, artistic and methodological directions. Translated literature as content in Kavkaz was formed taking into account the tasks that were set before the administration of the Caucasian governorship. The basic principle of translated literature was ideological in nature, which pursued dual goals. Firstly, there was a transfer of the local text to the outside world, the translation technology (as well as the processing and own presentation of local texts) worked to transport the Caucasian culture into the Russian and Russian-language culture: the narrative of the translated literature was primarily of a cognitive nature. Secondly, via translated fiction, there was a purposeful transfer of the imperial value system to a new multicultural paradigm, which, under soft or hard pressure, was transformed into a culture of a new type: the narrative of translated literature was mainly biased and propagandistic. The largest number of translated works published in the Kavkaz newspaper were from Georgian literature (18 pieces, three of them are excerpts from the poem The Knight in the Panther’s Skin). This is followed by Tatar literature (11), Armenian literature (3), Arabic literature (2), and one work each from Nogai, Cossack, Polish, English, French, Polish and Persian literature. Military themes prevailed in translated poetry. Of the 16 Georgian works, 10 were dedicated to the Russian rule in the Caucasus. In these works, the Turks were the antagonists of the native peoples, and the liberators and enlighteners of the region were the Russians under the leadership of the Russian monarch and the military leaders loyal to him. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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