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License Agreement on scientific materials use.
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Dr. Johnson in the history of translation reasoning
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Natalya Igorevna Reinhold
Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow
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Submitted:
April 30, 2025
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Abstract.
The article focuses on Dr. Johnson’s views on the 16th- and 18th-century translation in England. The aim is to draw a blueprint of his reasoning about the history and criticism of verse translation. His “Lives of the English Poets” (1781) serves as the central source of study. Johnson’s idea about the translation of classical poetry as the test of the poets’ achievement is under consideration. Special attention is paid to his analysis of the impact the classical verse translations made on the English language. Johnson’s critical comments on the home versions of Homer, Pindar and Virgil are investigated. The original aspect of research is found in the applying to Johnson’s work of a special type of analysis of its Russian version as a means of explicating the critic’s approach. The result is the exposition of Johnson’s innovative contribution to the methods of verse translation study and his advanced views on the criteria of evaluating translation. The latter include a translator’s and the author’s equal positions, the full understanding of the meaning and prosody of an original text, as well as recreating them via a special technique, and the link between the poetic worth of a translation and its significance for the development of the target language.
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Key words and phrases:
Сэмюэл Джонсон
жизнеописания
история перевода
классическая поэзия
критика перевода
Dr. Johnson
the lives
a history of translation
classical poetry
translation criticism
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