The Role of the Ukrainian Diaspora in Translating Lesia Ukrainka’s Works into English

Abstract

The article deals with the English translations of Lesia Ukrainka’s works. The author considers the new approaches to translation that emerged after the Cultural turn in the last part of the 20th century. In particular, the attention has been paid to the issues of migration and translation, negation of the Eurocentric ideas about translation, and translation as a constituent part for the formation of migrant’s community. Considering the chronology of the translation of Lesia Ukrainka’s works into English, it is argued that as a rule they were done by the Ukrainian diaspora and published in the periodicals, financed by the Ukrainian communities in Great Britain, the USA, and Canada. The most intensive phase of the popularization of poetess’s works in English happened to be during the middle of the last century. This could be explained by the nature of the third wave of migration, which occurred after World War II. This wave brought the highly politicized people, who tried to oppose the Soviet regime. They used literature to oppose the Soviet appropriation of the Ukrainian cultural heritage. Besides the Ukrainian diaspora have utilized the native fictional discourse to maintain the boundaries and consciousness of their collectivity.