Jean-Paul Sartre's theatre after communism: Perpetuating the past through non-retranslation?

Abstract

This paper deals with the phenomenon of non-retranslation in post-Soviet Russia, and the related practice of reprinting manipulated Soviet translations today. We will illustrate this phenomenon with Jean-Paul Sartre’s theatre translation in Russia. The stakes and mechanisms behind the reprinting of Sartre’s Soviet translations in the post-Soviet era will be explored through the frameworks of retranslation theory. We will also reflect on the possible impact of reprinting Sartre’s Soviet theatre translations today. Considering reprinting as an instance of non-retranslation, this paper will draw more attention to the practice of reprinting and how it relates to retranslation. The reasons for non-retranslation will, in part, be ascribed to the presence of a double normativity in Russia; characterized on the one hand by a dominant economic norm driving the field of literature after 1991, and on the other by a continued ideological (communist) norm. This uncovers how, a quarter of a century after its abolition, communist censorship continues to shape the reading of contemporary Russian readers, and thus puts to question the general assumption that communist censorship disappeared along with the USSR.

Keywords

• (Non-)Retranslation
• Reprint
• Sartre
• USSR
• Russia