Censorship and translated children’s literature in the Soviet Union: The example of the Wizards Oz and Goodwin

Judith A. Inggs
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

The study of translation and censorship is of particular interest in the context of Russia and the Soviet Union. With the aim of stimulating further discussion, particularly in relation to recent developments in the sociology of translation, this article takes the example of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900) and its adaptation by Alexander Volkov as The Wizard of the Emerald City (Volshebnik izumrudnogo goroda) (1939) in order to explore the relationship between the multiple forces at work in the translation of children’s literature under conditions of censorship. By means of an analysis of the differences between the two texts I conclude that censorship is a complex phenomenon which provides fertile ground for the creative manipulation and appropriation of texts and can be considered as an active participant in the creation of an image of a foreign body of literature and its location in a particular literary field.

Table of contents

The traditional importance of foreign literature in Russia and the Soviet Union combined with the crucial role played by ideology in the production of literature means that the study of translation and censorship is of particular interest in that context. It is therefore surprising that it has not been the object of more scholarly research in the West, although there has been further interest recently (for example, Sherry 2010). With the aim of stimulating further discussion, particularly in relation to recent developments in the sociology of translation, this article takes the example of L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900) and its adaptation by Alexander Volkov as The Wizard of the Emerald City (Volshebnik izumrudnogo [ p. 78 ] goroda) (1939) in order to explore the relationship between the multiple forces at work in the translation of children’s literature under conditions of censorship. In doing this, I do not accept the traditionally held view on Russian censorship described by Jan Plamper as “the repression of the inherently and essentially free word” (Plamper 2001: 526) but proceed from the standpoint that censorship is a complex phenomenon which is not simply imposed from above in order to silence and repress ideas and concepts, but which also provides fertile ground for the creative manipulation and appropriation of texts. Plamper does move away slightly from the traditional view to suggest that censorship is “no more and no less than one of the forces shaping cultural circulation” (2001: 527), but I believe that it also needs to be considered as an active participant in the creation of an image of a foreign body of literature and its location in a particular literary field.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

[ p. 90 ]References

Aspatore, J. V.
The Military-Patriotic Theme in Soviet Textbooks Children’s Literature 1986 Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. Georgetown: Georgetown University. (UMI Dissertaion Information Service, 1989).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baum, Frank L.
1985 (1900) The Wizard of Oz. London: Chancellor Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Billiani, Francesca
2007 “Assessing Boundaries—Censorship and Translation”. Francesca Billiani, ed. Modes of Censorship and Translation: National Contexts and Diverse Media. Manchester: St Jerome. 1–25.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
ed. 2007 Modes of Censorship and Translation: National Contexts and Diverse Media. Manchester: St Jerome.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre
1991 Language and Symbolic Power. Edited byJohn B. Thompson. Translated by Gino Raymond and Matthew Adamson. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1998 Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brandis, Evgenii
1980 Ot Ezopa do Dzhanni Rodari. Moskva: Detskaya Literatura.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ermolaev, Herman
1997 Censorship in Soviet Literature 1917–1991. Maryland, USA: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel
1978 The History of Sexuality: An introduction. Vol 1. Translated by Robert Hurley. New York: Random House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Friedberg, Maurice
1997 Literary Translation in Russia: a cultural history. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gouanvic, Jean-Marc
2005 “A Bourdieusian Theory of Translation, or the coincidence of practical instances”. Moira Inghillieri, ed. Special Issue of The Translator 11: 2. 147–166.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Inghillieri, Moira
ed. 2005 The Translator: Bourdieu and the Sociology of Translation and Interpreting. Special Issue of The Translator 11:2.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Khristenko, M. A.
1991 “Puteshestvie v volshebnuyu strany”. Literatura v shkole. 2. 121–125.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leighton, Lauren
1991 Two Worlds, One Art: Literary translation in Russia and America. Northern Illinois University Press: DeKalb, Illinois.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Littlefield, Henry M.
1964 “The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism”. American Quarterly 16. 1. 47–58.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Loseff, Lev
1984 On the Beneficence of Censorship: Aesopian Language in Modern Russian Literature. Translated by Jane Bobko. München: Verlag Otto Sagner in Kommission. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mitrokhina, Xenia
1996–7 “The Land of Oz in the Land of the Soviets”. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. 21:4. 183–188.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nikolajeva, Maria
1995 “Russian Children’s Literature before and after Perestroika”. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. 20: 3. 105–110.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Dell, Felicity
1978 Socialisation through Children’s Literature: the Soviet example. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parker, David
1994 “The Rise and Fall of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a Parable on Populism”. Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians. 15. 49–63. Available at: http://​www​.halcyon​.com​/piglet​/Populism​.htm [Accessed January 2011]
Plamper, Jan
2001 “Abolishing Ambiguity: Soviet Censorship Practices in the 1930s”. The Russian Review 60. 526–44.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rockoff, Hugh
1990 “ ‘The ‘Wizard of Oz’ as a Monetary Allegory”.Journal of Political Economy. 98: 4. 739–760.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
[ p. 91 ]
Sherry, Samantha
2010 “Censorship in translation in the Soviet Union: The manipulative rewriting of Howard Fast’s Novel The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti ”. Slavonica 16: 1. 1 – 14.   Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Starza, Arleta
1983 Children’s Literature in the Soviet Union: 1917–1934. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Nottingham: University of Nottingham. (British Theses Service).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tax Choldin, Marianna
1986 “The New Censorship: Censorship by Translation in the Soviet Union”. The Journal of Library History 21: 2. 334–349.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Volkov, Alexander
1939 Volshebnik Izumrudnogo Goroda. Moskva: Dom Rossiiskogo Detskogo Fonda.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
①
Volkov, Alexander Melentyevich
1991 Tales of Magic Land 1: The Wizard of the Emerald City. (Adapted from L. Frank Baum’s THE WIZARD OF OZ) and Urfin Jus and his Wooden Soldiers . Translated from the Russian by Peter L. Blystone. New York: Red Branch Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vol’pe, M.
1989 “Stoit li zabyvat’ Penroda?” Detskaya Literatura. 8. 45.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue