ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the meaning-space of Hamlet in Russian culture during the first two post-Soviet decades, taking into account not only translations but also other texts related to Hamlet. Gideon Toury made the point of insisting that the discussion of translation is impossible without taking into account the specifics of the target culture. The Soviet era produced two canonical translations of Hamlet—one by Mikhail Lozinskii and the other by Boris Pasternak. In 2002, the poet and mathematician Andrei Chernov offered his own poetic translation together with an elaborate exegesis of the play. Chernov is definitely more skilled in versification than his immediate predecessors; his text is fluent and ready-made for enunciation. The play included some extravagant elements; even the sets were very complex and colorful. Overall, the genre of Akimov's Hamlet can be classified as parody in the classical sense of the term: making comedy of tragedy, rendering the "high culture" text in low style.