Periods of Thomas Hardy's fiction translation in Russia: towards translation reception of Hardy's fiction in Russia

Readers' reception of foreign literature is carried out by means of translation, i.e. through a translator's reception. Thus, to study the Russian reception of Thomas Hardy's works, it is necessary to study Russian translations of his works, which makes it reasonable to start with determining periods of Hardy's fiction translation in Russia. The chronological aspect is the basis for the periodization. According to it, there are four periods of Hardy's works translations. They cover the time from 1892 to 1973, with productive translation periods changed by periods of absolute indifference to Hardy's novelism. The first period (1892-1897) correlates with Hardy's peak of popularity. Russian translations of his novels were issued soon after the English texts were published. The most outstanding Hardy's novels, Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, were his first works the Russian reader got acquainted with. The second period (1902-1912) is the least productive in terms of the number of translations. A particular feature of the period is multiple translations. The small number of translations at that time may be explained by the absence of new novels of Hardy, Jude the Obscure being his last novel. His early novels did not interest Russian translators of that time. It was only the third period of Hardy's works translations (1930-1948) that made it possible for Soviet readers to know the novels written before Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. The third period is associated with such a translator as Krivtsova Aleksandra V., since it was she who did most of the translation at that time. The increase in Hardy's works translations may be conditioned by several reasons. The author's social and religious position could be framed into the Soviet literary main stream. Another factor may be the idea introduced by Gorky A.M. He suggested that the works of the World Classic literature should be translated into Russian. The new spelling reform could also facilitate intensive translation activity. The fourth period (1959-1973) is the most productive one. Most of the translators belonged to the Kashkin School. The causes of such intensive translations of Hardy's works could be internal, like the "iron curtain" that limited the choice of modern foreign writers to be translated, and external, like the increasing interest in Hardy's works and his personal life that took place in Great Britain and the USA in the 1950s-1960s. Another issue to be studied is criteria for choosing works to be translated. Hardy collected his works in three cycles. According to Lann E., such a distribution is of qualitative character: the first cycle consists of works of no literary importance; the second one includes rather ordinary works; and the third cycle comprises his most outstanding novels. All the novels of this cycle and only some works of the first and second cycles were translated into Russian.

Keywords

Authors

References