Acasă Articole RTR The Translation and Soft (Self-)Censorship of Shakespeare’s Works in Communist Romania
The Translation and Soft (Self-)Censorship of Shakespeare’s Works in Communist Romania
Rezumat
The Translation and Soft (Self-)Censorship of Shakespeare’s Works in Communist Romania
Abstract: First-hand testimonies regarding the circumstances of the first edition of Shakespeare published in communist Romania suggest that the playwright’s hypercanonical status discouraged any attempt to censor the translation of his works, which led to the emergence of a tendency to attribute source-text alterations and omissions to various phenomena, ranging from self-censorship and shallow talent to a scarcity of updated critical material. This article focuses on the translators of Shakespeare’s works whose biographies and circumstances do not account for why their renditions adhere closely to the source text in some respects and distort it in other similarly taboo contexts. By analyzing instances of source material likely to have triggered a reaction on the censors’ part, I show that there is (con)textual evidence suggesting that Shakespeare’s translation in communist Romania was subjected to “soft (self-)censorship”, a phenomenon whereby the dramatist’s hypercanonicity and ideological appropriation may have provided room for negotiation between those involved in the translation of the two Romanian editions undertaken during the communist regime.
Keywords: censorship, communism, Romania, Shakespeare, translation
Citation suggestion: Martin, Anca Simina. “The Translation and Soft (Self-)Censorship of Shakespeare’s Works in Communist Romania”. Transilvania, no. 11 (2025): 74-83.
https://doi.org/10.51391/trva.2025.11.09.
Acknowledgement: This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC)under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program(grant agreement no. 101001710).
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