This thesis presents a complex study of the translation method of Svyatoslav Karavansky. The dissertation outlines the theoretical approaches to the analysis of the object and defines its methodology.
Theoretical framework of the research of the translation method of S. Karavansky is provided. His activity as a translator is viewed as a complex synergetic phenomenon. The latter itself comprises a translation studies conception, with the traditional Ukrainian schemes of versification, based upon musical imagery, being its integral part. Suggested by S. Karavansky, it is opposed to the official art doctrine of the USSR.
The experience and practices by S. Karavansky prove to be an important source of revitalization of the Ukrainian language in the field of literary translation. Lexicography practices by S. Karavansky, including his “Dictionary of Rhymes of the Ukrainian language”, are estimated as an important factor of a colonized nation development. It is during the years of independence of Ukraine, when the dictionaries by S. Karavansky appear especially popular.
We analyze the translation method of S. Karavansky as coming step in step after the traditions of promoting national identity in the field of Ukrainian literary translation. Due to its definite pro-national vector, creative activity by S. Karavansky in the field of Linguistics and Translation Studies is a moving force that defends and preserves the Ukrainian language as the constituent element of the national culture.
The dissertation provides the methodology of the research of the translation method of S. Karavansky. Differentiation of the related concepts, such as ‘an artist’s credo’, ‘creative / translation manner’, ‘translation / artistic style’, ‘artistic method’, ‘creative individuality of a translator’, ‘translation strategy’, ‘translator’s aim’, ‘project of metapoetic writing’, ‘verbal / speech creative activity’, ‘interpretative position of a translator’, ‘explicit and implicit poetics of a translator’, ‘translation method’, is provided.
To find out cultural, political, social, historical, and biographical contexts of development of the translation method of S. Karavansky, we conducted a series of interviews. Functional approach enabled us to define the main features of the creative translation method of S. Karavansky. Postcolonial theory in Translation Studies let us coin out the concept of a nation viewed as a variable construct of culture, created by the intellectual elite, and further apply it to the analyses of the poetic translation heritage of S. Karavansky. The translator’s conception of nation consolidation derives from the idea of re-writing of genetically coded cultural and historical memory of our ethnos in the form of national myths, that unfold themselves as historical, cultural, linguistic, religious and other national narratives. The innovation of the translation method of S. Karavansky finds itself in the actualization of national identity in the textual framework. It becomes possible by means of development of the traditional Ukrainian versification. Such development is followed by further re-conceptualization via literary translation of the traditional Ukrainian versification in the new system of cultural and poetic contexts. The very development is accompanied by introduction and implementation via literary translation of the Ukrainian language, revitalized to its best as “the house of being” of the Ukrainian nation, and that goes hand in hand with the creation of several fundamental lexicographic works, such as “The Dictionary of Rhymes of the Ukrainian Language”, “The Practical Dictionary of Synonyms of the Ukrainian Language”, “The Russian - Ukrainian Dictionary of Difficult Lexemes”, and a number of linguistic works.
