Abstract:
The paper examines the history of reception of Dostoevsky and his Notes from Underground in Catalonia. For decades, the context of the Christian faith or religion is one of those within which Dostoevsky is discussed or his works are referred to. The problem of translation is another thematic issue, because since the mid-1920s Dostoevsky is being translated into Catalan. The figure of Dostoevsky — of the “ingenious epileptic” — turns into a generality in the literary criticism’s debate. The writer becomes a key to understanding the political and cultural life in the USSR and in Russia. The first translations of Notes from Underground into Catalan appeared recently, in 2002 and 2004. In the context of political events in Catalonia, they were especially in demand, despite that various translations of Notes into Spanish have been available during years. The critics consider the novel to be up-to-date, and regard it as a key to understanding the contemporary human being, whereas the publishers are interested to reprint it again and again.
Information about the author:
Natalia Yu. Kharitonova, PhD, Senior Researcher, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 а, 121069 Moscow, Russia.
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