Abstract
In the environment of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, translation of Ukrainian war-themed literature has become a critically relevant cultural practice meant to represent the nation’s identity, disseminate its narratives of resistance and resilience, and share its people’s lived experiences. This study engages with Lidia Wolanskyj’s translation of Stanislav Aseyev’s collection of documentary essays In Isolation: Dispatches from the Occupied Donbas (В ізоляції. Есеї про Донбас) to foreground how the translator’s visibility and textual interventions contextualize occupation narratives for Anglophone audiences and amplify the author’s pro-Ukrainian political perspective in opposition to Russia’s propagandistic ideology. Stanislav Aseyev, a Donetsk-born writer and journalist who personally witnessed Russia’s 2014 occupation of Donbas and experienced arrest, torture, and unlawful detention, in his essays documents the unravelling occupation and analyzes the shifts in local postcolonial mentality as an identity conflict between post-Soviet propaganda-instilled beliefs and the emerging Ukrainian national self-awareness. The English version’s translatorial interventions, including textual transformations (changed order of texts; added timelines) and paratextual elements (translator’s notes; captioned photos and maps) centre the translator’s/editors’ project on the goal of educating their target audiences and raising awareness of Russia’s military aggression and informational warfare. Undertaken in 2022 amid continuing full-scale invasion, this translating project acquires special significance as a way to broadcast Ukraine’s war narratives and dismantle harmful tropes of Russian propaganda. My analysis highlights how the translator’s self-positioning contributes to this objective, while raising important questions on the translating subject’s agency in giving voice to the silenced survivors.
Presenters
Anna AntonovaAssistant Lecturer, Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Alberta, Alberta, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Literary Translation, Translator's Agency, Ukrainian War Literature, Propaganda, Occupation Narratives
