Made Under Pressure
Literary Translation in the Soviet Union, 1960-1991
University of Massachusetts Press
During the Cold War, determined translators and publishers based in the Soviet Union worked together to increase the number of foreign literary texts available in Russian, despite fluctuating government restrictions. Based on extensive interviews with literary translators, Made Under Pressure offers an insider's look at Soviet censorship and the role translators played in promoting foreign authors—including figures like John Fowles, George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut, Gabriel García Márquez, and William Faulkner.
Natalia Kamovnikova chronicles the literary translation process from the selection of foreign literary works to their translation, censorship, final approval, and publication. Interviews with Soviet translators of this era provide insight into how the creative work of translating and the practical work of publishing were undertaken within a politically restricted environment, and recall the bonds of community and collaboration that they developed.
Natalia Kamovnikova chronicles the literary translation process from the selection of foreign literary works to their translation, censorship, final approval, and publication. Interviews with Soviet translators of this era provide insight into how the creative work of translating and the practical work of publishing were undertaken within a politically restricted environment, and recall the bonds of community and collaboration that they developed.
This is the most comprehensive description of how Soviet literary publishing works since the 1960s, making a very significant contribution to book history, Soviet history, and translation studies. In addition, the oral history aspect is quite amazing.'—Greg Barnhisel, author of Cold War Modernists: Art, Literature, and American Cultural Diplomacy
'Made Under Pressure provides invaluable first-person 'insider' accounts of literary translation in the postwar Soviet Union by translators and editors in Moscow and Leningrad while also incorporating much of the excellent Russian research on the topic.'—Brian James Baer, author of Other Russias: Homosexuality and the Crisis of Post-Soviet Identity
'Natalia Kamovnikova's story draws our attention further to the ways that reading is mediated in 'closed societies' and the everyday methods deployed to encourage creative freedom.'—Reception
'[Kamovnikova] offers a colorful and engaging portrait of how cross-cultural reception is shaped institutionally before there is yet anything to receive.'—Russian Review
'This book is an original and valuable contribution to the history of Soviet literary translation, adopting as it does a refreshingly new perspective . . . Kamovnikova's engaging, far-reaching, and unique study of the role of literary translators and translations in the Soviet Union will be both informative and pleasurable not only for Slavic scholars but for any reader interested in literary translations 'made under pressure.''—Translation and Literature
Natalia Kamovnikova is associate professor of translation studies at St. Petersburg University of Management Technologies and Economics.
