Throughout history, translation has been inextricably linked to politics through ideology. In Eastern Europe in particular, the widespread implementation of communist regimes in the twentieth century profoundly altered the production and dissemination of culture, thus shaping the politics of translation. Studying these regimes through the lens of translation can therefore provide unique insights into their history and the nature of their power. Until recently, however, relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to the relationship between communism and translation. Collected works on translation and ideology, as well as power and resistance, have only sporadically included case studies on communism (e.g., Baer 2010). Journal articles are more frequent but tend to concentrate primarily on censorship under communist regimes from the perspective of translators and translation practices (e.g., Sherry 2013; Monticelli and Lange 2014). In light of this, the sociologist Popa (2013, 2018) has undertaken relatively comprehensive research on communism and translation. She defines communism and provides an overview of Translation Studies in Eastern Europe during the communist period, albeit both publications are single chapters in anthologies.

References

Baer, Brian James

2010 “Literary Translation and the Construction of a Soviet Intelligentsia.” In Translation, Resistance, Activism, edited by Maria Tymoczko, 149–167. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

Koskinen, Kaisa

2014 “Institutional Translation: The Art of Government by Translation.” In Translation in Institutions, edited by Ji-Hae Kang, special issue of Perspectives 22 (4): 479–492.

Monticelli, Daniele, and Anne Lange

2014 “Translation and Totalitarianism: The Case of Soviet Estonia.” The Translator 20 (1): 95–111.

Mossop, Brian

1988 “Translating Institutions: A Missing Factor in Translation Theory.” In La traduction et son public [Translation and its audience], edited by Judith Woodsworth and Sherry Simon, special issue of TTR 1 (2): 65–71.

Popa, Ioana

2013 “Communism and Translation Studies.” In The Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 4, edited by Luc van Doorslaer and Yves Gambier, 25–30. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Popa, Ioana

2018 “Translation and Communism in Eastern Europe.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation and Politics, edited by Fruela Fernández and Jonathan Evans, 424–441. Abingdon: Routledge.

Sherry, Samantha

2013 “Better Something Than Nothing: The Editors and Translators of Inostrannaia literatura as Censorial Agents.” Slavonic & East European Review 91 (4): 731–758.