Sumarokov's “Monstrous” Variants: Remarks on the History of Reading, Education and Translation in Eighteenth-Century Russia. Sumarokov’s translation practice, throughout his career, reveals a tendency towards "monstrous" solutions — contrary to the tradition of "common sense" translation — аn inclination to unexpected readings, fragmenting the text to the point of absurdity and appropriating it to the reader. This attitude towards translation can be explained by the orientation of St. Petersburg elites of the 1730s (as in the Noble Cadets Corps, where Sumarokov studied), towards Prussian educational models, including the linguistic school of the Halle pietist Johann Joachim Lange. The pinnacle of training in this school was a meticulous philological meditation on the biblical text that provided mystical insight. The significance of these textual practices for St. Petersburg culture of the mid-18th century is confirmed by the fact that the debate over Trediakovsky's translation of Lange's School Conversations in the late 1740s played a crucial role in crystallizing the aesthetic and authorial strategies of key St. Petersburg poets.
Grenoble Alpes University, France - ORCID: 0000-0002-3646-9535
Chapter Title
Монструозные варианты Сумарокова: замечания к истории чтения, образования и перевода в России XVIII века
Authors
Andrej Kostin
Language
Russian
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0585-6.24
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2024
Copyright Information
© 2024 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Language and Education in Petrine Russia
Book Subtitle
Essays in Honour of Maria Cristina Bragone
Editors
Swetlana Mengel, Laura Rossi
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
442
Publication Year
2024
Copyright Information
© 2024 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0585-6
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0584-9
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0585-6
Series Title
Biblioteca di Studi Slavistici
Series ISSN
2612-7687
Series E-ISSN
2612-7679