CFP: Translating Russian Literature in the Global Context

Deadline: March 31, 2021

We are actively seeking essays for a new, Open Access volume which is aimed at stimulating and consolidating scholarship about the global imprint of Russian literature in translation. See below for more details.

Scholars with expertise in English Studies, Modern Languages including Russian Studies, Comparative Literature, and Translation Studies are invited to submit essays for a new edited volume on the global translation and reception of Russian literary fiction in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Translating Russian Literature in the Global Context (2023) is intended to constitute the first geographically coherent, culturally inclusive, and theoretically consistent model of the distribution and influence of translated Russian literature on global cultures from 1900 to the present day. Given that many leading studies in this field have privileged Russian cultural transmission in Britain and/or Russian influence on British writers (May 1994; Kaye 1999; Beasley and Bullock 2013; Beasley 2020), the editors particularly invite new scholarship on the transmission of Russian culture and on intertextualities between specific Russian writers and non-Anglophone literatures. We envisage selecting up to 20 essays for our Open Access publication, which will be funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme in connection with the University of Exeter-based RusTrans Project (www.rustrans.exeter.ac.uk), Grant Agreement no. 802437.

‘Translation is the foremost example of a particular type of consecration in the literary world’ (Casanova, 2007, p. 133). Translating Russian Literature in the Global Context examines the translation and consecration of Russian literature as a world-wide process.  Marks (2002) was among the first Western scholars to demonstrate the significance of individual Russian authors, read in translation, on major writers in post-colonial states; for example, the influence of Dostoevsky on the Nobel Prize-winning Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz; or of Tolstoy upon Gandhi. Recent monographs on the transmission and/or translation of Russian literature in Brazil (Gomide 2011), China (Gamsa 2008), Korea (Cho 2016), and South Africa (Jackson 2015), have demonstrated both the reach of Russian literary culture, and its enduring relevance in diverse milieux. This volume aims firstly to provoke new debate about the continued currency of Russian literature as symbolic capital for international readers, in particular for nations seeking to create or consolidate cultural and political leverage in the so-called ‘World Republic of Letters’, and secondly to examine and contrast the mechanisms of the translation and reception of Russian literature across the globe. Our overall research questions, given here for guidance, include the following:

• How have the receiving (target) cultures reacted, in terms of socio-cultural and literary production, to the availability of Russian literature in translation?
• How and where have the Soviet and/or Russian governments funded translations of Russophone literature as a form of soft power, and with what cultural impact?
• How does the translation and reception of contemporary Russian writers (in terms of available funding, as well as audiences and sales) compare with how nineteenth-century classics continue to be received outside Russia?
• Is Russian literature still relevant for international readers? How have translations of contemporary Russian literature changed local perceptions of Russian national, cultural and political identity?
• Have audiences for Russian literature declined globally since 1900?
• How and why have specific translators mediated Russian literature for their target culture? What have the biggest challenges been in making new translations appeal to target culture publishers and audiences?
• How has the rise of online publishing altered the viability of former models of translation and distribution?

The editors particularly encourage new research on the transmission of Russian literature in non-Anglophone literatures and post-colonial nations, including:

• Asia, including India and China
• Australia and Oceania
• Central and Southern African nations and regions
• Former Soviet states and regions
• Individual European states
• Latin American nations, including Mexico
• North Africa and the Middle East

Essays should conform to one of the following models, drawing on appropriate Translation Studies theoretical apparatus (such as Venuti 1995, Pym 1998, Casanova 1999/2007, Damrosch 2003, Heilbron & Sapiro 2007, Munday 2014), in addition to topic-specific criticism and theory:

1. A historical survey of the translation, publication, distribution and reception of Russian literature, or of one or more specific Russian authors, in a given nation, language, or region. Historical surveys may cover the entire period of study (from 1900 to the present) or focus on a specific period justified by its cultural significance.
2. A socio-cultural microhistory of how a specific writer, genre, or literary group within the target culture translated, transmitted, or adapted aspects of Russian literature in their own literary production. The writer(s) selected for the case study should be highly influential within the target cultural sphere, or otherwise exemplary of the reception of Russian literature in that culture.

While prose fiction for adults is this volume’s major focus, the editors will also consider proposals relating to poetry and plays. Following an initial selection process by the volume editors, authors of longlisted abstracts will be invited to submit a full-length essay by December 2021. Essays should range in length between 5,000 and 8,000 words; each essay should focus on the transmission and subsequent influence of Russian literature in the culture of a particular nation, region, or ethnic group. Following double-blind peer review and subsequent contributor revision, publication in print and online should take place no later than Spring 2023.

Please send abstracts of no more than 500 words, excluding bibliography, to the editors (Dr Muireann Maguire and Dr Cathy McAteer) at rustrans@exeter.ac.uk, by March 31^st, 2021. Any enquiries should be sent to the same address.