What does it mean to read one nation's literature in another language? In The Translator in the Text May analyses Russian literature in English translation, seeing it less as a substitute for the original works than as a special subset of English literature, with its own cultural, stylistic, and narrative traditions. Using a unique blend of translation criticism, close reading and linguistic analysis, the author explores the translator's role as mediator between cultures and among the voices within literary texts. May's lucid argument is supplemented with dozens of comparative analyses of Russian passages and their English translations, which provide model close readings, focusing on the thematic implications of stylized language. The Translator in the Text offers a new paradigm for translation criticism as a pedagogical tool.