Paratexts as an act for resistance: Mykola Zerov and Russian translations of the Ukrainian canoniсal poetry
Abstract
Paratexts that accompany translations are of great importance from the historical perspective as they reveal certain factors that influenced the translation presentation and perception. Their importance is even more enhanced when the original texts are of national and cultural significance. The problem acquires a set of additional variables when texts are translated into the dominant culture. The paratexts analyzed in the research are exemplary in terms of their methodology developed with the decolonizing perspective in mind in the 30s of the 20th century in Ukraine and pertain the legacy of the national Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko being translated into Russian, the language of the long-term colonizer of the Ukrainian lands upon that time. The colonial status of the Ukrainian literature as translated into Russian enhances the importance of paratexts as it was a way of steering the perception of translation which was deprived of proper objective presentation or manipulation. Authored by the leading theoretician of translation and literary studies scholar in Ukraine of the time, Mykola Zerov, the paratexts trace which colonizer’s goals prevailed at which period, how the practice was implemented, and if there was a place for genuine appreciation of the genius of a poet who is a representative of the subjugated nation. The research aims to trace the specific elements of such translation paratexts relying upon the elements of colonial translation theory and sociological approach to translation.
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