Romeo And Juliet: Literary Monument. Review of: Shakespeare William. Romeo And Juliet , рubl. рrep. by E.M. Lutsenko. Moscow, Ladomir, Nauka Publ., 2021. 734 р. (“Literary Monuments” Series)

Abstract

The publication from the series “Literary Monuments” traditionally consists of three sections. The first presents the text of Shakespeare’s play and its translation (bilingualism in “Literary Monuments” is still the exception rather than the rule). Boris Pasternak’s translation is presented by the variant restored by the glassgrapher of 1943. The second section shows the main plot sources of Romeo and Juliet, namely novellas by Masuccio, Luigi Da Porto, Matteo Bandello, William Painter, and Arthur Brooke’s poem (most of them were translated into Russian specifically for this edition). The third section contains two articles, notes to the original text (a historical and cultural commentary reflecting the realities of Elizabethan times and the complexity of Shakespeare’s language), as well as a textual commentary on the translation. The first article, “The Tragic Laughter of William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet,” discusses the history of the play, the sources of the tragic plot and the changes made by Shakespeare, “synthetic genre” of the play, its experimental character and language. The second article is devoted to the history of Romeo and Juliet translations into Russian and related issues: “...is it possible to translate Shakespeare correctly?” A problem statement and solution are typical for the Russian philological school, and the achievements of Enslish-speaking specialists are also taken into account.

Keywords

• shakespeare
• romeo and juliet
• “literary monuments
• ” translation
• boris pasternak
• historical and cultural commentary
• textual commentary
• “witty tragedy.”