DANIEL DEFO'S ROBINSON CRUSO TRILOGY: EXPERIENCE OF TRANSLATION AND ADAPTATION INTO RUSSIAN

Abstract

The article is devoted to the history of the adaptation of the novel by the English writer of the early 18th century Daniel Defoe about Robinson Crusoe in Russian, whose 300th anniversary was celebrated in 2019–2020. Each of the three parts of the novel has its own history of translation into Russian. The first part, The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, has received many translations into Russian since the 1760s. The author of the article identifies among them four independent original versions. The second part of the trilogy, The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, was first translated at the end of the 19th century. And is essentially the only original adaptation into Russian. The third part of the novel, Serious Reflections on the Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, was translated into Russian only on the 300th anniversary of the novel and published in 2022. The author of the article shares her experience in interpreting the text of this part of the trilogy and shows that it is a collection of moral essays, which reflected the era of crisis in English society at the turn of the 17th–18th centuries.

Extended abstract:

The article is devoted to the history of adaptation of the novel by the English writer of the early 18th century Daniel Defoe about Robinson Crusoe into Russian, whose 300th anniversary was celebrated in 2019–2020. Each of the three parts of the novel has its own history of translation into Russian. The first part, The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, has received many translations into Russian. At first, this part was translated into Russian from French by Y. Trusov in the early 1760s. The first translation from the original language was made in 1842 by the talented writer and translator P. Korsakov, who managed to capture the adventure spirit of Defoe's novel. The second original translation was published in 1888 and 1889, accordingly in two parts of the trilogy, and was carried out by P. Konchalovsky close to «narodniks»’s circles. In accordance with the ideological guidelines of the author of the translation, the emphasis was placed on the formation of a «new person» who had overcome all the hardships and misery of being on an un-inhabited island. The third original translation of 1913 was made by the famous translator of the early 20th century L. Murakhina-Aksenova. The success of the publication was ensured by the novel’s figurative language of Russian translation. The continuity between the pre-revolutionary and soviet time’s translation traditions of Defoe's novel «Robinson Crusoe» was determined by two Russian translators - Z. Zhuravskaya and M. Shishmareva. Translators' adherence to leftist beliefs and ideas of women's emancipation provided a tendency to democratize the translation or simplify the novel’s text to ensure understanding and clarity of meaning. Thus, the author of the article identifies four original versions of the translation of the first novel’s part of the into Russian. The translation of the second part of the trilogy The Further Adventures of Robinson Cruso by Z. Zhuravskaya is essentially the only original translation into Russian. The third novel’s part, Serious Reflections on the Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, was translated into Russian only on the occasion of the 300th novel anniversary and published in 2022. The author of the article shares his experience of translating the last part of the trilogy and shows that it is the third part that reveals to us the true face of D. Defoe. Only all three parts of the trilogy taken together (The Amazing Adventures, The Further Adventures, Serious Reflections), give a complete picture of the author's intent. The third novel’s part is a collection of edifying essays and gives an idea of the moral and ethical values of the nonconformist Defoe.