Посол современной украинской литературы в России (переводческая деятельность Елены Мариничевой)

Abstract

The paper draws attention to the translation achievement of the Russian translator and journalist Yelena Marinicheva, who introduced the best works of the contemporary Ukrainian literary prose to Russian readers. The paper highlights the translator’s passionate desire to do away with ethnic, psychological and historical stereotypes and phobias and promote understanding and sympathy between the two neighbouring nations, Ukrainians and Russians. Yelena Marinicheva's aim is to bring the voice of the new Ukrainian literature across to the Russian readers, enabling them to hear and understand millions of Ukrainian people, their past and present. Yelena Marinicheva sees her mission not simply in translating the works of contemporary Ukrainian writers but also in promoting them through reviews and articles in literary journals, publications in the media and social networks. The paper looks at the motives behind Yelena Marinicheva’s interest in the contemporary Ukrainian prose, above all its openness, sincere appeal to the reader, vibrant emotions and autobiographic nature. Her major criteria for selecting works for translation are the author’s personality, otherness in seeing the people and events relevant for the Russian and Ukrainian history and the level of empathy radiated by the author. The paper also looks at the specificity of the present-day Ukrainian language which resists word-for-word translation and illustrates this specificity with some examples from Marinicheva’s translations.