Natalie Duddington’s religious translations from Russian: Faith in translation
Anna Maslenova
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Title
Natalie Duddington’s religious translations from Russian: Faith in translation
Abstract
This article examines translations of religious texts from Russian into English by Natalie Duddington (1886-1972), better known as an assistant to the prolific translator Constance Garnett. I consider ‘religious’ to refer to both spiritual and scriptural texts, given the overlap between religious and secular values in Russian culture. I explore Duddington’s career as a translator from the perspective of her traditionally female habitus (Simeoni, 1998) which dictates Duddington’s “invisibility” (Venuti, 2008). I argue, however, that invisibility is not necessarily imposed on a female translator by the rules of the cultural field in which she operates. Instead, I analyse Duddington’s translatorial hexis (Charlston, 2013) to show that, somewhat counter-intuitively, a translator can choose voluntarily to relinquish her own voice in the process of intercultural mediation, to further her perceived higher spiritual purposes. Duddington contributed to the British cultural field as a translator of Russian religious philosophy and literature, and as an author of her own philosophical works. Through these activities, she did not seek a more privileged position in society or to receive great personal gain. On the contrary, her main objective was to bring British and Russian people closer through shared spiritual wisdom.
Keywords
Woman translator, religion, translation, habitus and hexis, Russian religious philosophy, Natalie Duddington
34(1) - 2022