Translating Place and Space: The Soviet Union in North Korean Children’s Literature

2020 ◽  
pp. 87-99
Author(s):  
Dafna Zur
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Place And Space ◽  
The Soviet Union

Translation and Transformation: English-Language Children's Literature in (Soviet) Russian Guise

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Inggs
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
English Language ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Socialist Realism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Philosophy Of Action ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Free Translation ◽  
Soviet Russia

This article investigates the perceived image of English-language children's literature in Soviet Russia. Framed by Even-Zohar's polysystem theory and Bourdieu's philosophy of action, the discussion takes into account the ideological constraints of the practice of translation and the manipulation of texts. Several factors involved in creating the perceived character of a body of literature are identified, such as the requirements of socialist realism, publishing practices in the Soviet Union, the tradition of free translation and accessibility in the translation of children's literature. This study explores these factors and, with reference to selected examples, illustrates how the political and sociological climate of translation in the Soviet Union influenced the translation practices and the field of translated children's literature, creating a particular image of English-language children's literature in (Soviet) Russia.

scholarly journals Między utopią socjalizmu a karykaturą Zachodu. Nie-dziecięca interpretacja świata przedstawionego w trylogii o skrzacie Nieumiałku Mikołaja Nosowa

2020 ◽  
pp. 63-88
Author(s):  
Marta Studenna-Skrukwa
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Adult Reader

This paper attempts an interpretation of Nikolai Nosov’s novels about the adventures of Dunno, which enjoyed a cult status in the Soviet Union. Despite being children’s literature, they are examined in terms of themes that have little to do with young readers. The analysis is historical rather than literary, aiming chiefly to elucidate the cultural context and the social notions from the period of Khrushchev’s thaw. Here, the author undertakes to answer the questions concerning the extent to which the reality created by Nosov served to mould the socialist worldview as early as childhood and, simultaneously, whether it incidentally offered the adult reader an opportunity of intellectual escape into the officially condemned world.

scholarly journals Emblematic journeys: Gianni Rodari in the USSR

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Creative Work ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Education ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Folk Tradition ◽  
Real Responsibility

The article focuses on the success of the works of the Italian children’s writer Gianni Rodari in the Soviet Union. One of the reasons for Gianni Rodari’s success in his native Italy lies in his previous popularity in the Soviet Union, thanks to early translations of his works by Samuil Marshak and his numerous visits to the USSR beginning in the 1950s. A committed communist, Rodari wanted to get a better understanding of the country that he admired so much. However, his political attitude was not narrow-minded; he investigated the Soviet education system and style of upbringing and communicated with his readers – Soviet children. In Cipollino, the author created a universally acknowledged ideal of a good and honorable hero who fights for freedom, plays in earnest, laughs at difficulties and strives to grow up into a responsible citizen. There are two main factors that contributed to the success of Rodari’s works with Soviet readers: first, their material contains an in-depth interpretation of the concept of utopia. Rodari understood utopia not as an abstraction but as a real responsibility of humanity for its better future. Second, in his creative work, the author pays great attention to folk art, which is a theme running through his rhymes, fairy tales, and stories. Folk tradition was a fundamental element both in Italian children’s literature and the Soviet children’s literature promoted by Marshak and other prominent writers for children in the first half of 20th century. These two vectors are perfectly combined in Cipollino, a favourite character with Soviet children, whose adventures are still being translated and staged in theatres outside Italy. The interaction of these vectors explains why the Italian writer is still widely read and loved, his poems are included in school syllabi, and his words are acquiring a new meaning in the 21st century. The article also reveals the reasons for the lasting popularity of Gianni Rodari’s translated works in intersemiotic cultural space of film and cartoons, ballet etc in Russia, Ukraine and other post-Soviet states.

Censorship and translated children’s literature in the Soviet Union

Target ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith A. Inggs
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Literary Field ◽  
Wizard Of Oz ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Sociology Of Translation ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Relationship

The study of translation and censorship is of particular interest in the context of Russia and the Soviet Union. With the aim of stimulating further discussion, particularly in relation to recent developments in the sociology of translation, this article takes the example of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900) and its adaptation by Alexander Volkov as The Wizard of the Emerald City (Volshebnik izumrudnogo goroda) (1939) in order to explore the relationship between the multiple forces at work in the translation of children’s literature under conditions of censorship. By means of an analysis of the differences between the two texts I conclude that censorship is a complex phenomenon which provides fertile ground for the creative manipulation and appropriation of texts and can be considered as an active participant in the creation of an image of a foreign body of literature and its location in a particular literary field.

Translation of Children's Literature in the Soviet Union: How Pinocchio Got a Golden Key

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Kaloh Vid
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Ideological Influence ◽  
Children's Stories

This article analyses ideological influence on the translations of children's literature in the Soviet Union where translation was seen as an ideological tool and was expected to promote ideological values. Changing and adapting the source texts according to the newly established ideological demands was a common practice. Soviet children's literature was also used as a means of propaganda and a strong pedagogical instrument of education of new Soviet citizens. To explore how the Soviet ideological message was promoted within children's literature, I will analyse Alexei Tolstoy's adaptation of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), entitled Zolotoi kliuchek ili prikliucheniia Buratino [The golden key or the adventures of Buratino]; henceforth The Golden Key), published in the Soviet Union in 1935. In Tolstoy's version the original underwent direct ideological changes. As one of the most successful children's stories introduced into the Soviet environment, The Golden Key depicts the values of the system under which it was written, including abolition of private property, the importance of collective labour, and the idea of equality and socialisation.

The Proletarian Child Strikes Back

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dafna Zur
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Children's Literature ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Working Class ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
The United States ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Transnational Connections

This chapter explores children’s literature during a time when new leftist visions demanded that content and form be merged to better capture the child-heart. Proletarian writers wrote against the bourgeois child-heart and translated it into a moral instinct and outrage over the exploitation of the working class. These writers, many of whom went on to become prominent literary figures in North Korea, sought to create a child-heart that, unlike the angelic disposition of its bourgeois counterpart, was fueled by resentment and choreographed action. Noting the transnational connections with proletarian cultures in Japan, the Soviet Union, and the United States, this chapter examines the content and language of leftist writing and points to emerging developments in children’s literature that spilled over into the formative period of 1950s North Korea, which became home to many of the prominent writers and illustrators active in the mid-twenties and thirties.

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