Les traductions françaises dans le polysystème littéraire ukrainien : le cas de la « Renaissance fusillée »
French Translations in the Ukrainian Literary Polysystem (The Executed Renaissance)

Summary/Abstract: This contribution is within the framework of the polysystem theory of I. Even-Zohar, who, starting in translation studies, raised lively reflections on the role of translated literature within the literature of national culture. Literature, according to the researcher, is an open and dynamic polysystem composed of the centre and the periphery, the evolution of which is due to the continuous rivalry between the innovative and conservative tendencies of the polysystem. The contribution of the translations to the literary polysystem of a culture depends on their position in the polysystem of the target culture. Translations, being central in the literary polysystem, serve as sources of innovation as translators are freer to introduce foreign elements and techniques to the target literature. On the contrary, if the subsystem of the translated literature lies in the periphery of the polysystem, translators have to limit themselves to the models existing in the target culture, thus helping to maintain conservative tendencies. Our contribution is therefore an attempt to apply the theory of I. Even-Zohar to the study of French translations in the Ukrainian literary polysystem of the 1920ies-30ies. We have tried to shed light on the position of translated French literature in the Ukrainian literary polysystem as well as its contribution to the development of the reception system by analyzing the translation activity of the neo-classics representatives. Thus, we have identified three types of relationships between systems and subsystems characterizing the polysystemic approach: the centre versus the periphery (transitions from French); innovative systems versus conservative systems (the emergence of new literary genres in the centre of the field such as sonnets and heroic comedies; in addition the Symbolist and the Impressionist movements replaced the Soviet realism); canonical systems versus non-canonical systems (the introduction to the system of versification of forms and motifs which were different from those of Soviet literature).

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