(Trans)forming national images in translation
The case of the “Young Estonia” movement
The article explores the relations between translation, cultural identity and national self-image, focusing on a case study from early 20th century Estonia. The analysis of different aspects of the “Young Estonia” cultural movement’s project of literary and linguistic renewal reveals that the translational attitude adopted by the movement – well expressed in their slogan “Let us be Estonians, but let us become Europeans too” – does not describe a linear trajectory of “self-colonisation”, as some scholars have recently claimed. It points rather to the “processual inseparability” of translation, cultural renewal and national self-imagining that is studied in the article through an analysis of Young Estonian poet Vilem Ridala’s experiments with emotion vocabulary as a privileged place of cultural difference in his controversial 1913 translation of Gabriele D’Annunzio’s L’innocente.
Article outline
- Introduction
- The adaptational origins of the Estonian national image
-
“Unhinging” the national: Young Estonia’s diffraction of the national image
- The “aesthetic principle”
-
Translation and/as cultural renewal
- Oneself as another: The utopian efficacy of impossible identifications
- Pleasure out of the foreign: The scandal of translation
- Making Estonian(s) emotional
- Conclusion
-
Acknowledgement
-
Notes
-
References
References (32)
References
Aavik, Johannes. 1924. Keeleuuenduse äärmised võimalused. Tartu: Kirjastus Istandik.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
D’Annunzio, Gabriele. 1913. Süütu [Trans. by Vilem G. Ridala]. Tartu: Noor-Eesti Kirjastus.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
D’Annunzio, Gabriele. 1996. L’Innocente. Milano: Mondadori.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dović, Marijan. 2010. “Literary Histories: From the National to the Post-National Perspective.” Interlitteraria 15 (1): 53–65.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Erelt, Tiiu. 2000. Eesti keelekorraldus. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Even-Zohar, Itamar. 1990. Polysystem Studies. Special issue of Poetics today 11 (1).![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jacquemond, Richard. 1992. “Translation and Cultural Hegemony: The Case of French-Arabic Translation.” In Rethinking Translation, ed. by Lawrence Venuti, 139–158. London/New York: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jakobson, Roman. 2003. “Two Aspects of Language and Two Types of Aphasic Disturbances.” In Semiotics Vol. I, ed. by Mark Gottdiener, et al. London: Sage Publications.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lotman, Juri M. 1997. “Culture as subject and object of itself.” Trames 1 (51/46): 7–16.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lotman, Juri M. 2000. Universe of the mind [Trans. by Ann Shukman]. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lotman, Juri M. 2005. “On the semiosphere.” Sign Systems Studies 33 (1): 205–229.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lotman, Juri M. 2009. Culture and explosion [Trans. by Wilma Clark]. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Möldre, Aile. 2011. “Publication of Literary Translation in Estonia in 1901–1917: An Overview.” In Between Cultures and Texts. Itineraries in Translation History, ed. by Antoine Chalvin, Anne Lange, and Daniele Monticelli, 151–164. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Monticelli, Daniele. 2009. “Eesti keeleuuendus ja Itaalia questione della lingua. Paralleelid ja põimumised.” Keel ja Kirjandus 2: 104–123.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Olesk, Sirje and Marin Laak. 2008. “Noor-Eesti rollist eesti kirjandus- ja kultuuriloos.” Methis 1/2: 7–20. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pilvre, Barbi. 1988. “Villem Grünthal-Ridala keelelisi vaateid.” Keel ja Kirjandus 12: 716–724.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ploom, Ülar. 2011. “From Mugandus (Accomodation) towards Discourse-Aware Translation: Some Aspects of an Italian Itinerary in Estonian Translation History.” In Between Cultures and Texts. Itineraries in Translation History, ed. by Antoine Chalvin, Anne Lange, and Daniele Monticelli, 213–226. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rancière, Jacques. 1998. Aux bords du politique. Paris: Gallimard.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ridala, Vilem G. 1911. Eesti kirjakeele arenemine – Eesti Kultura I. Tartu: “Postimehe” kirjastus.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ridala, Vilem G. 1913. “Eessõna.” In Süütu [L’innocente] [Trans. by Vilem G. Ridala], v–xxxvi. Tartu: Osaühisus “Noor-Eesti kirjastus”.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ridala, Villem G. 1918. [Titleless]. In Kümme aastat. Noor-Eesti 1905–1915, 81–85. Tartu: Noor-Eesti.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Semper, Johannes. 1918a. “Mälestustest.” In Kümme aastat. Noor-Eesti 1905–1915, 27–33. Tartu: Noor-Eesti.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Semper, Johannes. 1918b. “Noor-Eesti ja kunst.” In Kümme aastat. Noor-Eesti 1905–1915, 62–73. Tartu: Noor-Eesti.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Suits, Gustav. 1931. Noor-Eesti nõlvakult: kahe revolutsiooni vahel. Tartu: Noor-Eesti Kirjastus.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tuglas, Friedebert. 1912b. “Natuke Capitoliumist ja hanidest.” Noor-Eesti IV: 257–268.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tuglas, Friedebert. 1912a. “Kirjanduslik stiil. Mõned leheküljed salmi ja proosa ajaloost.” Noor-Eesti IV: 23–100.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tuglas, Friedebert. 1918. “Noor-Eesti 1903–1905.” In Kümme aastat. Noor-Eesti 1905–1915, 9–22. Tartu: Noor-Eesti Kirjastus.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vainik, Ene. 2004. Lexical Knowledge of Emotions: The Structure, Variability and Semantics of the Estonian Emotion Vocabulary. Tartu: Tartu University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Venuti, Lawrence. 2004. “Translation, Community, Utopia.” In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. by Lawrence Venuti, 482–502. London/New York: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Veski, Johannes V. 1958. Keelelisi töid. Tallinn: Eesti riiklik kirjatsus.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vihma, Helgi (ed.). 1990. Kultuurilugu kirjapeeglis. Johannes Aaviku & Friedebert Tuglase kirjavahetus. Tallinn: Valgus.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Yao, Steven G. 2002. Translation and the Languages of Modernism. Gender, Politics, Language. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Loogus, Terje & Luc van Doorslaer
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 14 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.