Egorova, L. (2024). To publish and translate the impossible: From the history of ‘Kolyma Tales’ [‘Kolymskie rasskazy’]. Vologda: Vologodskiy gosudarstvenniy universitet. (In Russ.)

Abstract

: In his critical review of L. Egorova’s monograph To Publish and Translate the Impossible: From the History of ‘Kolyma Tales’ [Izdat i perevesti nevozmozhnoe: Iz istorii ‘Kolymskikh rasskazov’], O. Minnullin recognizes the book’s strengths, such as exclusive insights into the story of Shalamov’s publication in the West, an uncompromising quest for the textological accuracy of the published ‘Kolyma epic,’ and the author’s profound understanding of the intricacies of translating Shalamov’s prose into English. L. Egorova successfully proves that J. Glad’s deviations from the original text result from the fact that the American translator often worked with the author’s text heavily revised by the editor. A meticulous comparison of the original text as printed in the 2013 edition of collected works, which is based on Shalamov’s holograph, and the Noviy Zhurnal publication reveals extremely liberal treatment of the text by the journal’s editor.