Russian Translations of Parodies of Didactic Verses in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: What Got Lost in the Rabbit Hole?

Abstract

This study focuses on Carroll's parodies of didactic Victorian poems in twelve Russian translations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland released over the twentieth century (1924–2000). All parodied verses were well known to Carroll's contemporary readers and this element of recognition was further reinforced by the fact that such poems were learnt by heart and recited. Much of the humour in these parodies is based on a mockery of social protocol and deconstructing of moral and didactic principles of the Victorian era, a distant and barely known epoch for the target audience of Russian children or adults. The primary goal of the analysis is to examine solutions offered by Russian translators to achieve the recognisability and clash of meanings commonly found in parodies. The domesticating method used by the translators is clearly one that enables easier recognisability of a parody, while foreignising helps the translator to faithfully convey the message of the original parody and to keep ironic and nonsensical elements.