Translation as a Means of Reaching the Collective Memory: The Ukrainian Versions of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar

The paper explores the ways of transmitting connotations in translation. The study is based on the analytical approaches suggested by Fredric Jameson, Wilhelm Dilthey, Mikhail Bakhtin, H.-G. Gadamer, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Yuriy Lotman as well as ideas of modern translation theorists Lawrence Venuti, Gideon Toury, Emily Apter,  André Lefevere, Susan Bassnett, Edith Grossman, and Maria Tymoczko. Two Ukrainian versions of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar are in the focus of attention. Panteleimon Kulish’s version exemplifies the brilliant conveying of culturally specific notions. Vasyl’ Mysyk’s creative attempt proves that political implications can be rendered on the level of the collective memory. Both translations can be treated as a kind of implicit ideological weapon employed to initiate the thought-provoking process in the colonial and totalitarian contexts.

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