Anuari de Filologia. Llengües i Literatures Modernes

Fedor Sologub in English-language anthologies 1950-2023

Jason Merrill — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The works of the writer Fedor Sologub have appeared in English translation since 1913. Many of them were published in literary anthologies, a popular means for bringing aspects of a literature to readers who do not read the original language. Before 1950, Sologub was featured mostly in general collections, which usually portray him as Russia’s quintessential decadent author. After 1950, in connection with increased interest in the Russian language, a more diverse range of anthologies was published, many of which were created by scholars with a background in Russian literature. Their portrayal of Sologub, as a result, often was more detailed and nuanced and explored aspects of his poetics beyond his “decadence”. The anthologies themselves included many works that had not previously appeared in English, not only his poetry and prose, but also dramas and theoretical writings. Covering the years 1950-2023, this article discusses the major types of literary anthologies that feature Sologub and examines how they presented him to English-speaking audiences. Attached to the article are bibliographies of anthologies that include Sologub’s works and of the translations that appear in them.

The translation of hispanic american female poetry in China: who and what has been translated?

Bai Zhimeng, Guillem Castañar Rubio — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Since the Reform and Opening Up in 1978, Spanish American literature has been introduced on a large scale to China. Among translated literary works, feminine poetry occupies a very important position. Based on the study of translated anthologies that include compositions authored by women published in China from 1985 to the first decade of the 21st century, this article focuses on two elements related to these anthologies: which are the selected and translated poems and who are their authors. Four questions are analyzed: the poetesses that appear the most often in the anthologies, the poetesses with the most selected poems, the diachronic distribution of the poetesses and their geographical distribution. The objective of this study is to synthesize the criteria followed by the translators in the compilation of the anthologies and thus deduce the main interests in China in the field of Spanish-American feminine poetry.

The people of Chernobyl: a community of loss in Svetlana Aleksievich’s Chernobyl Prayer

Lyudmila Parts — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Svetlana Aleksievich conducted hundreds of interviews with those affected by the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine and her native Belarus and assembled them in her 1997 novel Chernobyl Prayer. A Chronicle of the Future. Aleksievich, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015, created a complex, polyphonic blend of oral history and literature and provided a fragmentated and diverse narrative of memory, trauma, and victimhood. The article examines Aleksievich’s rendition of the ways in which “the people of Chernobyl” convey their own understanding of this identity. The many voices of Aleksievich’s novel coalesce to speak for what Serguei Oushakine calls a community of loss. The article traces the articulation of their identity: from the frustrated search for appropriate discursive tools and points of reference, to the explicit sense of having formed a unique social entity, a community. This transition is also a progression, through the process of articulation and analysis, from a negative identity, defined by loss and a radical change in status, to one enhanced by philosophical and environmental awareness. This is also a shift from the mainstream Soviet worldview and identity to other more complex, albeit less comforting perspectives.

The veiled people. Imaginaries and realities in La tierra que empezaba a arder. Último regreso a Siria by Cynthia Edul

Marina Rios — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

La tierra que empezaba a arder. Último regreso a Siria (2019) by Cynthia Edul configures a constellation of images of the Syrian people based on three representation strategies. There are space-time figures, the intermediate inclusion from frames and photographs, and the family and personal plot that allows to expand a writing that is based on the intersection between fiction and research as ways to figure a people that a priori is presented as elusive.

Elements of storytelling in student essays

Andrei Shatilov — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Using the example of essays by first-year students of the Faculty of Sociology, SPbSU, written as part of the assignments in the course “Russian Language and Culture of Speech” in 2023, the author analyzes the elements of storytelling encountered in their work. It is noted that in general students have an idea of composition, plot, characters, development of action, etc., but often they do not clearly understand the specifics of the narrative, cannot always maintain a style, cannot create a structured and logically coherent text. Dramatic, even tragic situations are used to add greater expressiveness; characters move freely in time and space; most often an internal conflict is used to develop the action; less popular are the struggle of motives and the clash with their own conscience; external conflicts (confrontation with family) are isolated. A common shortcoming of many essays is the plot and structural incompleteness, when there is no logical or compositional point that would complete the narrative.

Catalan literature translated into Chinese

Wei Sun — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks to translation, Catalan literature has managed to spread throughout the world, including China. This paper is presented with three objectives: to present an overview of the Catalan literature translated into Chinese, to identify the challenges of translating Catalan literary works into Chinese, and to propose some suggestions in order to promote Catalan literature. For the first objective, we have carried out a literature review which reveals that Catalan literature has been poorly translated into Chinese. In order to achieve the last two objectives, following Peng’s proposal (2020), we have reflected on the factors that limit the translation of Catalan

literature into Chinese and have proposed possible solutions, among which the training of talents in Catalan language and culture should be highly emphasized.

Love declaration: from Ovid and Seneca to O’Neill

Zahra Nazemi, Nasser Maleki, Shoja Tafakkori Rezaei — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This paper aims to explore the literary topos of the “declaration of love” by examining its origins in selected Roman texts and its reinvigoration in Eugene O’Neill’s modern play, Anna Christie (1921). The classical “declaration of love” is argued to encompass various stages, including admiration of the beloved, praising the lover, encouraging the pursuit of love and enjoyment of youth through marriage (carpe diem), expressing emotions, and extending an invitation to partnership. By analysing the recontextualization of this topos in O’Neill’s four-act play, it is established that while Anna Christie’s plot does not directly imitate any classical myth, the incorporation of the topos can be likened to the structure found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, specifically the myth of Vertumnus and Pomona, as well as the ambiguous expression of love by Phaedra in Seneca’s tragedy. Consequently, the connection between these texts is based on the presence of a shared structure (classical topos) rather than direct influence or reception.

The role plays in teaching Russian as a foreign language as the method of activization of the students’ communication skills: linguadidactic approach

Dorota Drużyłowska — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The aim of this entry is to present a specific type of language plays, the so-called role plays in the classes of Russian as a foreign language. The text considers various types of language plays, the effectiveness of their application for the improvement of students’ communicative skills, as well as for the formation of social and cultural competence. The up-to-date concept of edutainment is discussed. The article contains a brief overview of selected collections (textbooks) of plays. The main part of the text presents examples of role plays that can be used in classes of Russian as a foreign language.