Cultural Diplomacy and Translation: The Image of Ukraine and Ukrainians Through Italian Translations of Ukrainian Literature in 2022-2024
Abstract
The article highlights the role of literary translation as an integral part of a country's cultural diplomacy, which is designed to promote a positive international image of the country abroad by showing its specific national characteristics. Since 2017, the Ukrainian Institute, a national institution, has been representing Ukrainian culture in the world, including through the translation of Ukrainian literature into various languages. It promotes the dissemination of literary translations of Ukrainian literature around the world, including in Italy. The purpose of this study is to analyse the representation of the self-image and hetero-image of Ukraine and Ukrainians through the Italian-language translation of Ukrainian literature. The material of the study was Italian translations of Ukrainian poetry and prose of the nineteenth, twentieth and twentieth-first centuries, which were made and published in Italy in 2022-2024. The main method of the study was an imagological analysis of the texts. During the analysed period, two poetry and one prose anthologies of works by Ukrainian authors of the nineteenth, twentieth and twentieth-first centuries, three collections of poetry by individual authors, and ten novels, short stories, and diaries by classic and contemporary Ukrainian authors were published in Italy. Through the prism of these translations, the ethnic image of Ukraine as an integral part of the European intellectual space, as a country of rich history and culture, was modelled. The image of Ukrainians of different eras was shown primarily as an image of strong-minded, life-loving, highly moral people with good aesthetic taste, for whom philosophy and love for their country are an organic part of the national ethnic culture. From the pages of classical Ukrainian literature of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the archetypal features of the national character of Ukrainians were emphasised, such as individualism, cordocentrism, and antiism. Resilience, steadfastness, and the ability to adapt even in the most difficult life situations are shown as national traits of the Ukrainian mentality through the translation of texts of the twentieth and twentieth-first centuries.
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References
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