Hans Christian Andersen in Ukraine

Abstract This paper studies Ukrainian translations of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales done during pre-Soviet and Soviet Russia, and post-Soviet Ukraine. It focuses on pre-Soviet translations by Mykhailo Starytsky (1840–1904), Soviet translations by Oksana Ivanenko (1906–1997), and Natalia Sydorova’s translations in contemporary Ukraine. Building on theoretical insights of Lawrence Venuti, we explore the kind of formal and thematic interpretants these translators employ. We argue that while Starytsky’s Ukrainian translations of Andersen’s fairy tales can be understood in terms of foreignization because they challenged the political and cultural hegemony of Russian, Ivanenko’s translations are an example of wholesale domestication since they reinforce the hegemony of the Russian language during the Soviet era. Sydorova’s translations published in contemporary Ukraine also domesticate Andersen’s fairy tales, but without perpetuating Russian cultural dominance.