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Meaningful absences

Byron in Bulgarian

Abstract

This chapter builds on the presence of Byron in Bulgaria in order to examine his absence with regard to the literary and historical contexts of the recipient culture. Part one focuses on Byron’s non-appearance in the period of the Bulgarian Revival; part two elaborates on The Giaour, A Fragment of a Turkish Tale and its non-existant Bulgarian translation; part three discusses the Socialist oblivion of Manfred, once the most popular Byronic poem in Bulgaria. This chapter suggests that the absence of translations in a given culture can speak as loudly as the translations themselves.

Abstract

This chapter builds on the presence of Byron in Bulgaria in order to examine his absence with regard to the literary and historical contexts of the recipient culture. Part one focuses on Byron’s non-appearance in the period of the Bulgarian Revival; part two elaborates on The Giaour, A Fragment of a Turkish Tale and its non-existant Bulgarian translation; part three discusses the Socialist oblivion of Manfred, once the most popular Byronic poem in Bulgaria. This chapter suggests that the absence of translations in a given culture can speak as loudly as the translations themselves.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Notes on contributors ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Part I. Contexts
  7. Shifting contexts 19
  8. Nation and translation 33
  9. Vasilii Zhukovskii as translator and the protean Russian nation 55
  10. Romania as Europe’s translator 79
  11. Translating India, constructing self 97
  12. The water of life 117
  13. Translation trouble 137
  14. Part II. Subtexts
  15. Between the lines 149
  16. Translation theory and cold war politics 171
  17. The poetics and politics of Joseph Brodsky as a Russian poet-translator 187
  18. Squandered opportunities 205
  19. Meaningful absences 219
  20. Part III. Pretexts
  21. Translated by Goblin 235
  22. “No text is an island” 249
  23. Russian dystopia in exile 265
  24. Between cosmopolitanism and hermeticism 277
  25. The other polysystem 295
  26. Translation as condition and theme in Milan Kundera’s novels 317
  27. Index 323
Contexts, Subtexts and Pretexts
This chapter is in the book Contexts, Subtexts and Pretexts
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.89.17kos

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Notes on contributors ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Part I. Contexts
  7. Shifting contexts 19
  8. Nation and translation 33
  9. Vasilii Zhukovskii as translator and the protean Russian nation 55
  10. Romania as Europe’s translator 79
  11. Translating India, constructing self 97
  12. The water of life 117
  13. Translation trouble 137
  14. Part II. Subtexts
  15. Between the lines 149
  16. Translation theory and cold war politics 171
  17. The poetics and politics of Joseph Brodsky as a Russian poet-translator 187
  18. Squandered opportunities 205
  19. Meaningful absences 219
  20. Part III. Pretexts
  21. Translated by Goblin 235
  22. “No text is an island” 249
  23. Russian dystopia in exile 265
  24. Between cosmopolitanism and hermeticism 277
  25. The other polysystem 295
  26. Translation as condition and theme in Milan Kundera’s novels 317
  27. Index 323
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