Feats of Agreeable Usefulness: Translations by Russian Women 1763-1825 by Wendy s> Rosslyn (review)

Abstract

7I6 SEER, 8o, 4, 2002 Silver Ages are discussed and evaluated by Donald Rayfield and Michael Baskerrespectively, with the former being seen primarilyin terms of poetry (although Rayfield acknowledges that the Golden Age also marked the appearance of outstanding works of prose), and the latter more broadly, treatingthe term 'SilverAge' as overlappingwith the concept of modernism. In these essays, as elsewhere in this volume, the reader is made aware of the sense of continuity and resonantinterplayof themes and ideas that characterize Russian literature. Derek Offord focuses on nineteenth-century Russian thought, demonstrating how it is precisely the 'fluid boundary' between thought and imaginativefiction, as exemplifiedin the worksof such disparate authors as Turgenev and Dostoevskii, which lends the age its very special quality. Finally, G. S. Smith discusses the development of Russian poetry since 1945, contending that during this most recent period Russia has witnessed its third 'great flowering' of poetry, after the Golden and Silver Ages; once again, it has been the influence of the past which has been the dominant source of inspiration. The publishers'claimthat'Routledge Companionsaretheperfectreference guides, providing everything the student or general reader needs to know', and that 'in each book you'll find what you're looking for' is inappropriatein thiscase. As even a cursoryglance at the index will show, thisvolume does not provide a comprehensiveA-Z coverage of its subject.Cornwell'sprefacegives a more modest indication of what the reader might expect, pointing out that the volume is intended as 'a reasonably comprehensive guide to the development of Russianliterature',and thatthebulkof thework'concentrates unashamedly on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries' (p. ix). Even taking this into account, however, we are clearly not dealing here with a reference work in the normal sense of the term: a number of significantworkswritten duringthe last two hundredyears,even those by majorauthors,are eithernot discussedat all or receive the briefestof mentions. This might lead the reader to question the volume's overall objective, since it seems at times unable to decide whetherit should be performingan encyclopaedic function on the one hand, or adopting a discursive analytical approach on the other. But if the separateparts of this book amount to a less than totally satisfyingwhole, this does not detractfrom its value as a seriesof thought-provokingarticleswhich guide us to a greater understandingof an extraordinaryphenomenon. The volume is not annotated, but each essay is followed by a list of recommended works for further reading, and there is a wide-ranging and useful bibliographicalsection at the end. Department ofRussian ROGER COCKRELL UniversityofExeter Rosslyn, Wendy. Featsof Agreeable Usefulness.Translations by Russian Women I763-I825. VerlagF. K. Gopfert,Fichtenwalde, 2000. 209 pp. Notes. Appendix. Bibliography.Index. DM39.oo (paperback). TRANSLATION was one of the most important means for the transmissionof Western culture into Russia during the long eighteenth century. Wendy REVIEWS 7I7 Rosslyn here explores the contribution made to this process by the I 20 or so women whose published translationsare recorded chronologicallydecade by decade in a comprehensive Appendix (pp. I75-97). Particularattention is paid throughoutthe studyto the gender issuesthat have been raisedin recent investigations into early women's translating in England and elsewhere. In eighteenth-century Russia, it is argued, translatingwas the main means by which women could participate directly in the public sphere. The distinct presence that women constructed for themselves in the national world of letters is particularlywell delineated; the translator'sindividual voice, often muffled by her submission to the source text, is sought out in a meticulous examination of any paratextual details, the signatures, dedications and prefacesthat accompanied the publishedtranslations. Fundamentalquestions are raised at the outset of the study. Who were the women translators?What was their social background?What material did they choose to translate,and what were the reasonsfor their selection?What, if any, were their translation strategies? How did they arrange for the publicationsof theirefforts?Who were theirreadersand how were theirworks received?In her detailed answersto all these questionsRosslyn is informedby comparable studies of women translators in Western literatures and her understandingof the Russian context. The present work is also substantially indebted to her previouspioneering studiesof women's earlycontributionsto Russian literature: 'Making their Way into Print: Poems by EighteenthCenturyRussian Women' (SEER,79, 2000), 'Mar'yaVasil'evnaSushkova:an...