Cathy McAteer – författare

Launched in 1950, Penguin’s Russian Classics quickly progressed to include translations of many great works of Russian literature and the series came to be regarded by readers, both academic and general, as the de facto provider of classic Russian literature in English translation, the legacy of which reputation resonates right up to the present day. Through an analysis of the individuals involved, their agendas, and their socio-cultural context, this book, based on extensive original research, examines how Penguin’s decisions and practices when translating and publishing the series played a significant role in deciding how Russian literature would be produced and marketed in English translation. As such the book represents a major contribution to Translation Studies, to the study of Russian literature, to book history and to the history of publishing.

Launched in 1950, Penguin’s Russian Classics quickly progressed to include translations of many great works of Russian literature and the series came to be regarded by readers, both academic and general, as the de facto provider of classic Russian literature in English translation, the legacy of which reputation resonates right up to the present day. Through an analysis of the individuals involved, their agendas, and their socio-cultural context, this book, based on extensive original research, examines how Penguin’s decisions and practices when translating and publishing the series played a significant role in deciding how Russian literature would be produced and marketed in English translation. As such the book represents a major contribution to Translation Studies, to the study of Russian literature, to book history and to the history of publishing.

Presents original archival research on eight largely unknown émigrée translators whose work during the Cold War actively contributed to and, in some cases, decisively shaped the reception of Russian and Soviet literature throughout the English-speaking world.In this open access volume, Cathy McAteer profiles female translators of Russian and Soviet literature into English during the last century, focusing on the UK, USSR and US. Through cultural mediation, most often translation, each woman represents a unique encounter with Cold War politics. Drawing from extensive archival material, including British Intelligence files, reviews, publications and memoirs, Cold War Women sketches the microhistories of eight complex and occasionally controversial bilingual women: Moura Budberg, Vera Traill, Evelyn Manning, Margaret Wettlin, Violet Dutt, Edith Bone, Olga Carlisle, and Mirra Ginsburg. Many of these women, in addition to their work as translators and publishers of Soviet literature, led complex political lives that brought them under scrutiny for espionage, and even suspected assassination.Cold War Women explores how literary translation became a uniquely enabling career for each of these women, both in personally challenging gender norms, and in showing translation's soft power for galvanizing propagandist and humanitarian change. The book thus rehabilitates forgotten but influential female translators of Russian literature whose contributions helped to shape the Anglophone reception of Russian and Soviet literature both during and beyond their fraught historical moment.The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the University of Exeter.