'Pulling Away, I’ll Cling': Grigori Dashevsky’s Translation Politics

• In Event: Translation as Liberation: Breaking the Barriers

Abstract

This presentation posits the translation practice of poet Grigory Dashevsky (1964-2013) as a model for shifting subjectivities of the post-Soviet transition. I interpret Dashevsky’s idiosyncratic 1990s translations of classical poetry as a process of abandoning Aesopian language—a key practice of unofficial late-Soviet literary activity—for a more liberated approach to shared texts. On the one hand, this shift suggests a move away from Soviet-era habits of “suspicious” subjectivity toward greater immediacy and transparency; on the other hand, Dashevsky's erudite play with the classical heritage, and even his insistence on clarity, could point to cherished (Soviet) intelligentsia ideas about the continuity of pre-revolutionary elite culture. The tension between these impulses marks Dashevsky’s work and is, I argue, characteristic of 90s literary culture more broadly.

Author

• Ainsley Morse, UC San Diego