Ilya Vinitsky, Transfers: Literary Translation as Interpretation and Provocation (Moscow: Ruthenia, 2022)

March 22, 2023

In this book, Vinitsky proposes a third mode of translation strategy, after Venuti’s “domestication” and “foreignization,” canonized in the 1990s. This other interpretation technique is the “personalization” of the original, in which the translator consciously or unconsciously perceives a “foreign” text as his or her own’s one. Through this text, the translator then expresses his or her “personal” content: individual allusions, conflicts, ideas, emotions, and situations that are relevant to the translator and his or her circle of readers. This personalized translation, usually addressed to a select circle of readers who are devoted to the translator’s “legend,” features many modifications. However, despite these internal differences, the “personalization” of the original is a completely independent practice that borders on individual creativity.