Retranslation and evolution of translators' interpretation of the main character in Russian translations of Tess of the d 'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

The article deals with Russian translational reception of Tess in translations of Tess of the d 'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. The aim of the article is to deliver the results of the author's research devoted to the evolution of translational interpretation of Tess in Russian translations of the novel. The research materials are three Russian translations (1893, 1911, 1930) and the corresponding source texts. The particular objective of the research was to identify the source texts for each translation since the author had edited the novel until the Wessex edition was published. The second objective of the research was to study the reasons for the Russian re-translations. The research was also aimed at comparing and analyzing the retranslations in terms of translators' interpretation of Tess to identify the developmental character of the process. The applied methods were bibliographic, biographic, historical and comparative. It can be concluded that the main character becomes more and more complicated with each new translation. The core of the evolution of Tess in translators' reception is expressed through the translation of the title. The first translator of the novel (1893) Vera M. Spasskaya entitled it as Tess d'Urbervilles, the subtitle that transfers the author's attitude to the heroin being left out of the readers' attention. The translator's view on such notions as "purity" and "innocence" did not coincide with the concepts by Hardy, which resulted in mitigating the issues of guilt and innocence, purity and depravity. The first Russian translation shows that Spasskaya tended to regard Tess as "guilty and flawed", the plot of the novel being contracted but not broken. The second translation was published in 1911. The author of the translation was Lev P. Nikiforov, an exiled revolutionary. Working as a political writer and translator, he was interested in the social problems highlighted in Hardy's novel: women's social position, capital punishment, social disparity. The subtitle of the novel became the title in his translation, thus making personality trait prevailing over the name. However, Nikiforov substituted the quality "real" for the original "pure". Further analysis of the translated text proves that the concept "real woman" by Nikiforov implies a rebellious, strong-willed and independent woman. The third translation (1930) by Alexandra V. Krivtzova is the last and classic one. It is the translation that fully conveys the whole title complex of the novel. The comparative analysis of all the three translations proves that keeping to the strategy of "precise translation" developed by her husband and editor E. Lann, Krivtzova succeeded in conveying Tess as a profound and deep personality. Her reception of the main heroin made the ideas of sacrifice, guilt and purity to be philosophical and humanitarian issues. Thus, we can state that Russian translators' reception of Tess was a stage-by-stage process.

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