Yuri Tynyanov’s comparative studies in the light of translation theory

Abstract

Against the background of the latest trends in the field of translation theory, the article attempts to distinguish between the terms “translation studies” and “translatology”. The material for analysis is a number of authoritative studies by Russian and foreign authors, in which literary translation and translated literature are considered as a fact of cultural transfer and the subject of comparative literary studies. Variants of the translatological approach are illustrated by an example from George Steiner’s monograph After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation (1975) and Yuri Lotman’s “‘Journey to the Island of Love’ by Vasily Trediakovsky and the function of translated literature in Russian culture of the first half of the 18th century” (1985). The central part of the article is devoted to the comparative studies of Yuri Tynyanov in the early 1920s. An example of a more traditional translation approach is given by Tynyanovs study “Tyutchev and Heine” (1922), a classic example of Russian comparative studies that confirms the thesis that the delimitation and differentiated use of the terms “translation studies” and “translatology” allow us to more accurately describe the semantic structure of both scientific texts and those works of art to which they are devoted. On the contrary, in Tynyanovs study “Blok and Heine” (1921), which is close in theme and when created, both analytical strategies are present on equal terms; translation studies and translatology complement each other, forming a synthesis. A typological comparison includes both observations of Block’s translation strategy, supported by an aesthetic analysis of the works of both poets, and the posing of the question of the social function of art and the role of the artist in shaping the modernist metanarrative of personality emancipation.