Translating the Diaries of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in Communist Romania
Translating the Diaries of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy in Communist Romania

Summary/Abstract: My paper will discuss the critical grounds that preceded the translation of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy’s diaries into Romanian, published by Univers Publishing House in 1974 and 1975-1976 respectively, focusing on the Prefaces written by Ion Ianoși. Relying on both historical studies and relevant documents of the 1947-1989 period, I will start by generally describing, on the one hand, the process of the Russian and Soviet translations into post-War Romania and, on the other hand, the Communist regime’s views and practices in translating and publishing autobiographical literature.Leftist intellectual who fulfilled his academic education in USSR and worked in the Central Committee for almost nine years, Ion Ianoși is a key-figure in analyzing the incipient reception perspective of the two Diaries; collating the 70s Prefaces with their post-Communism republications and Ianoși’s Memoirs, I will dwell on the position the scholar takes in the foreignization-domestication binary, as discussed by Sean Cotter following two of Lawrence Venuti’s concepts.

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