The Translation History of Fedor Dostoevsky in Greece (1886-1992)

Abstract

This thesis examines Fedor Dostoevsky’s literary reception in Greece through the author’s translation history over one century, from his introduction into Greek culture at the end of the nineteenth century until the end of the twentieth century. The Greek reception of Dostoevsky is advanced as a case study of how Dostoevsky’s persistent canonical status is the result of a successful, ever-transformative negotiation of his value through (re)translation. My research has as its theoretical basis Gideon Toury’s target-oriented approach which examines translations as a fact of the target culture. As such, I examine Modern Greek literary history to understand what determined the reception of Russian literature at different historical moments. I also adopt sociological approaches to translation, incorporating Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural production to distinguish between the material and symbolic level of translation production, i.e. between the direct producers of the work (translators) and the producers of the meaning and value of the work (publishers, critics). Within this context, I reconstruct a chronology of translators, publishers and critics, whose names function as signposts in the history of Dostoevsky’s Greek reception. I predominantly focus on two central figures of Dostoevsky’s translation history: Alexandros Papadiamantēs (1851-1911), the first translator of Crime and Punishment; and Arēs Alexandrou (1922-1978) whose translations of Dostoevsky are considered the standard edition in Greek. I explore the instrumental role these two translators played in Dostoevsky’s positive reception and canonization in Greece predicated on: domesticating translation strategies they adopted; the historic-cultural context in which their translations were produced – transitional moments in the reception of Russian literature in Modern Greek culture; the way they responded to Dostoevsky’s fiction in their original work. I argue that Papadiamantes’ and Alexandrou’s reputations as celebrated authors of the Modern Greek canon (while they were alive and posthumously) have enhanced the symbolic value of their translations and by implication that of Dostoevsky; a process of inter-consecration forming between the translator and the translated author through a mutual reinforcement of their symbolic capital.