THE INFLUENCE OF SOVIET PROPAGANDA DURING THE "COLD WAR" ON THE UKRAINIAN TRANSLATION OF BERTOLT BRECHT'S THE THREEPENNY OPERA IN THE 1960s

The article examines the peculiarities of the Ukrainian translation of Bertolt Brecht's play The Threepenny Opera by the renowned Ukrainian translator Borys Ten, influenced by the so-called "Soviet propaganda" – the ideological discourse that existed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The author, drawing on their own translation experience – including the translation of dramatic works by the famous founder of epic theater, particularly The Threepenny Opera characterizes the specifics of Borys Ten's translation strategy. The nuances of domestication strategy in Borys Ten's translation are analyzed in terms of transformations in the depicted world, marked by ideological clichés of the time: rejection of bourgeois civilization, representation of German realities of Nazi Germany within the framework of Soviet ideological discourse, negative portrayal of America and American militarism, and the reduction of global-scale events and phenomena to Soviet and Ukrainian contexts. The analysis of the translation interpretation of The Threepenny Opera by Borys Ten and his son Vasylko Khomychevsky unfolds against the backdrop of several significant contexts for Ukrainian translation and literary studies: the artistic discourse of Nazi and post-war Germany, within and beyond which Brecht's creative world is constructed; the Ukrainian translation process of the 1960s; modern Ukrainian translation studies; and the translation practices required for artistic disciplines such as theater. The significance of contemporary translations of Bertolt Brecht's plays is evident in how intensively they are now integrated into the repertoire of theaters in Ukraine—in Lviv, Kyiv, and Sumy. Among the Ukrainian translators of Brecht's works, in addition to Borys Ten and Vasylko Khomychevsky, Yuriy Lysnyak and Serhiy Zhadan are mentioned, marking two radically different periods in the development of the national translation school.

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Publication Details

Journal
Brecht-Magazine Articles Essays Translations
Published
2024-12-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.35433/brecht.10.2024.61-73
Primary Topic
Military, Security, and Education Studies
Type
article
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article

THE INFLUENCE OF SOVIET PROPAGANDA DURING THE "COLD WAR" ON THE UKRAINIAN TRANSLATION OF BERTOLT BRECHT'S THE THREEPENNY OPERA IN THE 1960s

Mykola Lipisivitsky
Brecht-Magazine Articles Essays Translations
Military, Security, and Education Studies
article

THE INFLUENCE OF SOVIET PROPAGANDA DURING THE "COLD WAR" ON THE UKRAINIAN TRANSLATION OF BERTOLT BRECHT'S THE THREEPENNY OPERA IN THE 1960s

Mykola Lipisivitsky
article en

Abstract

The article examines the peculiarities of the Ukrainian translation of Bertolt Brecht's play The Threepenny Opera by the renowned Ukrainian translator Borys Ten, influenced by the so-called "Soviet propaganda" – the ideological discourse that existed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The author, drawing on their own translation experience – including the translation of dramatic works by the famous founder of epic theater, particularly The Threepenny Opera characterizes the specifics of Borys Ten's translation strategy. The nuances of domestication strategy in Borys Ten's translation are analyzed in terms of transformations in the depicted world, marked by ideological clichés of the time: rejection of bourgeois civilization, representation of German realities of Nazi Germany within the framework of Soviet ideological discourse, negative portrayal of America and American militarism, and the reduction of global-scale events and phenomena to Soviet and Ukrainian contexts. The analysis of the translation interpretation of The Threepenny Opera by Borys Ten and his son Vasylko Khomychevsky unfolds against the backdrop of several significant contexts for Ukrainian translation and literary studies: the artistic discourse of Nazi and post-war Germany, within and beyond which Brecht's creative world is constructed; the Ukrainian translation process of the 1960s; modern Ukrainian translation studies; and the translation practices required for artistic disciplines such as theater. The significance of contemporary translations of Bertolt Brecht's plays is evident in how intensively they are now integrated into the repertoire of theaters in Ukraine—in Lviv, Kyiv, and Sumy. Among the Ukrainian translators of Brecht's works, in addition to Borys Ten and Vasylko Khomychevsky, Yuriy Lysnyak and Serhiy Zhadan are mentioned, marking two radically different periods in the development of the national translation school.

Brecht-Magazine Articles Essays Translations(10)
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Military, Security, and Education Studies
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