ABSTRACT

V issarion Grigorievich Belinskii was the lead-ing literary and social critic of his day. He is credited with giving Russian literature a place of supreme importance in the life of the nation and with establishing the view of literature as a patriotic vocation. While Slavists recognize the enormous role he played in nineteenthcentury Russian literature – it was Belinskii, for example, who ‘discovered’ Dostoevskii, declaring him ‘the new Gogol’ – few of his writings have been translated into English. He was well aware of the importance of translation in the evolution of modern Russian literature, and argued quite passionately for increased visibility of the translator – consider his call for ‘an era of translation’ in Russia. He argues that translations should be viewed as part of Russia’s national literature and coins the phrase ‘original works of translation’. He also practises what we might call ‘reader response’ translation criticism, arguing that audience response is the only way to judge translation quality. However, he also recognizes the need for multiple translations that would correspond to an audience’s degree of familiarity with an author’s work. Finally, he openly acknowledges the crucial contribution of translations to the evolution not only of modern Russian literature but also of the modern Russian language. Below is a selection of writings by Belinskii that covers a wide range of topics from the assessment of literary translations to the (un)translatability of certain literary works. Deeply polemical, some of his literary judgements appear quaint, but many of his views on translation are surprisingly nuanced and relevant to current discussions in Translation Studies.