Russian literature translation and the Argentine Avant-Garde

“Dostoievskian” Buenos Aires: Russian literature translation and its influence on the Argentine Avant-Garde

Adel Faitaninho

In the process of reexamining the footprint that 19th-century Russian literature left on Latin American writers, I have found that translation is both the bridge between the two continents and the very material out of which a culture and national identity is built. Claridad, one of the major publishers of Russian literary translations, played a key role in shaping the publishing market in Argentina, as well as in the construction of Argentine ideological and cultural thought during the first half of the 20th century. This talk is part of an attempt to trace the path that Russian realism took in the hands of the Argentine Left by analyzing the publisher’s choice of Russian literary works to be translated into Spanish and examining the shifts that reflected political and cultural changes in Argentina, the Soviet Union, and Europe.