Mediators: Translations and Translators in Soviet International Relations

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

The panelists analyze Soviet translations as a means of international communication. All four presentations examine translations in a broader cultural/ideological context, focusing on the agency of translators and their contribution to Soviet encounters with the West.
Benjamin Musachio analyzes Updike's Evtushenko translations published in LIFE magazine in February 1967. The presentation is based on Yevgeny Yevtushenko's Papers in Stanford University Department of Special Collections. The presenter shows how Updike, who was critical of Evtushenko's poetry, sought to improve the original text during translation.
Thomas Garza's research analyzes Soviet translations of Western rock lyrics. The presentation shows the tension between the desire to satisfy the growing interest of Soviet youth in Western musical products and the desire to censor Western texts during translation.
Alexey Kotelvas’ presentation is dedicated to the agency of Romanian-speaking tourist guides (“guides translators”) worked in Soviet Moldova. The research is based on archival, media publications, travel guides, and the oral history project. The Romanian-speaking guides were actually Romanian native speakers, pretending that their mother tongue was Moldovan.
Sarah Phillips’ presentation considers the life story and literary career of one of the Soviet Union’s most acclaimed literary translators, Rita Rait-Kovaleva. Famous for her brilliant translations of J.D. Salinger, William Faulkner, Mark Twain, and Kurt Vonnegut, Rait-Kovaleva introduced generations of Soviet readers to these beloved American authors.

Francine Hirsch will join the panel as chair. Lisa Kirschenbaum will comment on the presentations.

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Francine R. Hirsch, U of Wisconsin-Madison

Papers

• John Updike as a Translator of Russian Poetry - Benjamin Musachio, UNC at Chapel Hill

• 'I Wanna Hold Your Komsomol Membership Card': Soviet Translations of Western Rock Lyrics and Mid-Century Soft Power - Thomas Jesús Garza, U of Texas at Austin

• Showing Moldova: Romanian-speaking Tourist Guides as Actors of Identity Politics (1965-1989) - Alexey Kotelvas, U of Florida

• ‘I Translated the Word "Bastard" Eighteen Different Ways': Rita Rait-Kovaleva's Cold War Literary Diplomacy - Sarah Drue Phillips, Indiana U Bloomington

Discussant

• Lisa A. Kirschenbaum, West Chester U