This thesis explores the central role translation came to play in Greek intellectual production under the Dictatorship of 1967-1974, namely its function as a mechanism of cultural resistance. Methodological tools borrowed from both translation and cultural studies are used in order to demonstrate the socio-political dimension of translation as a gesture of great cultural significance. The first chapter juxtaposes the propagandistic discourse and the restrictive practices of the authoritarian regime to the dissident discourse and the progressive ideas promoted by the group of intellectuals practising cultural resistance. This serves to depict the tension created in the Greek cultural field under the Junta, and explains the reasons causing translation to emerge as an effective means of free expression. The mediated nature of translation, allowing those involved in the industry to avoid full responsibility for translated texts' content, is discussed as the most prominent characteristic that turned translation into the publishing product par excellence associated with Greek cultural resistance against the Junta. The second, third and fourth chapters are devoted to three agents of translation, according to the model of patronage proposed by Lefevere. These agents are firstly those publishers who founded new, small-scale, and progressive publishing houses under the Junta, publishing mostly translations and republications of modem Greek texts. The second group were the directors, editors and contributors working for dissident literary journals first published under the Junta, who used translation extensively to infuse the Greek readership with progressive ideas from abroad. Thirdly, the translators themselves, who worked towards producing translations of major texts, contextualizing them in Greek contemporary reality and showing their relevance to the pressing socio-political issues. These three agents are closely examined in terms of their position in the cultural landscape of the time, as are the discussions the translated texts they produced triggered in intellectual circles, both in Greece and abroad. Therefore, this thesis proposes a systematic mapping of the networks of intellectuals involved in translation at the time, and an insight into the impact translations had on the Greek readership. It also offers a selection of close readings of a number of indicative translated texts, which are drawn from the vast corpus of translations published under the Junta, in order to show the potential these texts had to turn the gesture of translation into a dynamic mechanism of cultural resistance. It is by placing emphasis on the work of individuals, such as Giorgos Chatzopoulos, the publisher of Kalvos editions, Dimitris Kalolcyris, the chief editor of TO TRAM, and Pavlos Zannas, who translated A la recherche du temps perdu during his incarceration as a political prisoner, that this thesis engages with the cultural significance translation acquired during the Junta period in Greece, making it emerge as a prominent
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:600801 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Mygdali, Christiana |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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