The Russian reception of Olga Tokarczuk’s works. Preliminary remarks

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to discuss the Russian reception of Olga Tokarczuk’s works. It should be emphasised, however, that due to the growing popularity of the Polish Nobel Prize winner and her writing, the analysis conducted herein should be treated as a preliminary one. In the initial part of the paper the author presents a comprehensive list of Russian translations of Olga Tokarczuk’s works providing all the relevant details. The first text that was translated into Russian was the short story “Numbers” (1989). This translation was rendered by Ksenia Starosielska and published in the monthly literary magazine Inostrannaia Literatura in 2000. In the subsequent section the author of the paper presents an overview of opinions, ideas, evaluations, analyses, and interpretations voiced by Russian Literary Studies specialists, reviewers, and translators of Olga Tokarczuk’s works into Russian. They include: Irina Adelgeim, Tatiana Izotova, Jelena Rybakova, Jelena Fanailova, Maria Zakruchenko, and Sergei Sirotin. The analysis of these contributions reveals that not only do Russian readers have access to a considerable selection of the works of the Polish Nobel Prize winner, but are also provided with an opportunity to familiarise themselves with insightful literary criticism concerning her works. This is due to the fact that these translations are mostly performed by specialists in Polish literature. One of them is Irina Adelgeim who is the author of numerous publications concerning 20th-century Polish literature. The analysis conducted for the purpose of this paper also demonstrates that the translators are not invisible. They actively participate in popularising Olga Tokarczuk’s works, thus raising the readers’ awareness of the role of literary translator.