Translation Under Communism

This book examines the history of translation under European communism, bringing together studies on the Soviet Union, including Russia and Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Poland. In any totalitarian regime maintaining control over cultural exchange is strategically important, so studying these regimes from the perspective of translation can provide a unique insight into their history and into the nature of their power. This book is intended as a sister volume to Translation Under Fascism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) and adopts a similar approach of using translation as a lens through which to examine history. With a strong interdisciplinary focus, it will appeal to students and scholars of translation studies, translation history, censorship, translation and ideology, and public policy, as well as cultural and literary historians of Eastern Europe, Soviet communism, and the Cold War period.

Christopher Rundle is Associate Professor in Translation Studies at the University of Bologna, Italy; and Research Fellow in Italian and Translation Studies at the University of Manchester, UK. He has published extensively on the history of translation, including Publishing Translations in Fascist Italy (2010) and Translation Under Fascism (2010). He is co-editor of the book series Routledge Research on Translation and Interpreting History, and is coordinating editor of the translation studies journal inTRAlinea. Anne Lange is Associate Professor in Translation Studies at Tallinn University, Estonia. She has published on translation in Estonia at the backdrop of its cultural and intellectual history. She initiated the series of international conferences Between Cultures and Texts: Itineraries in the History of Translation held in Tallinn and Tartu. She is co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of the History of Translation Studies (forthcoming). Daniele Monticelli is Professor of Translation Studies and Semiotics at Tallinn University, Estonia. His research focuses on the ideological aspects of translation and the role of translation in cultural and social change. He is co-editor of the volume Between Cultures and Texts: Itineraries in Translation History (2011) and the Project Leader of the Research Grant "Translation in History, Estonia 1850-2010: Texts, Agents, Institutions and Practices".

Part 1: Introduction.- Chapter 1. Introduction (Christopher Rundle, Anne Lange, and Daniele Monticelli).- Chapter 2. Translation and the History of Communism (Anne Lange, Daniele Monticelli, and Christopher Rundle).- Part 2: The Soviet Union.- Chapter 3. Translation and the Formation of the Soviet Canon of World Literature (Nataliia Rudnytska).- Chapter 4. Censorship, Permitted Dissent, and Translation Theory in the USSR: The Case of Kornei Chukovsky (Brian James Baer).- Chapter 5. Translating Inferno: Mikhail Lozinskii, Dante and the Soviet Myth of the Translator (Susanna Witt).- Chapter 6. Translation in Ukraine during the Stalinism Period: Literary Translation Policies and Practices (Oleksandr Kalnychenko and Lada Kolomiyets).- Part 3: Communist Europe.- Chapter 7. The Politics of Translation in Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1952 (Maria Rita Leto).- Chapter 8. Ideological Control in a Slovene Socialist State Publishing House: Conformity and Dissent (Nike K. Pokorn).- Chapter 9. "Anyonewho isn't against us is for us". Science Fiction Translated from English during the Kádár Era in Hungary (1956-89) (Anikó Sohár).- Chapter 10. The Impact of the Cultural Policy of the GDR on the Work of Translators (Hanna Blum).- Chapter 11. The Allen Ginsberg 'Case' and Translation (in) History: How Czechoslovakia Elected and then Expelled the King of May (Igor Tyšš).- Chapter 12. Literary Translation in Communist Bulgaria (1944-1989) (Krasimira Ivleva).- Chapter 13. Underground Fiction Translation in People's Poland, 1976-1989 (Robert Looby).- Part 4: Response.- Chapter 14. A Battle for Translation (Vitaly Chernetsky).