ABSTRACT
Ivan Aleksandrovich Aksenov (1884–1935), a writer, poet, critic, and translator, was a remarkable representative of the avant-garde movement in Russia, who strongly influenced nearly every sphere of Russian cultural life, including translation theory and Shakespeare translation in particular. Nevertheless, his contribution to Russian culture has long remained forgotten. This paper explores Aksenov’s unique contribution to the early Shakespeare studies in Soviet Union: his work on the translation of Elizabethan dramatists and his translations of Shakespeare, as well his theoretical writings that positioned Shakespeare in the context of socialist realism and Soviet cultural politics of the 1930s.
