In the second of our Anglo-Russian Research Network lecture series, Anna Maslenova speaks about an almost-forgotten translator of Chekhov.
Marian, her sister Oliva, and two Kyrgyz girls, in a yurt.
Marian Fell Vans Agnew (1886 – 1935) was one of the first translators to introduce Chekhov and Korolenko to American and British audiences. Her name was almost forgotten after the most rigorous accusations of her contorting of original Russian texts, made by Kornei Chukovskii in his book The Art of Translation (1964). The main claim of Chukovskii was Fell’s destruction of Chekhov’s authenticity which, using current Translation Studies parlance, might be called her excessive use of domestication.
In her presentation, Anna argues that Marian employed foreignization techniques, too, but in her own particular way. The logic of her individual style becomes clear if one considers the story of the Fell-Vans-Agnew family, which embodied different pages of Russian, American and British history. As a teenager, Marian stayed in the Kirghiz steppe where her father, Edward Nelson Fell, a New Zealand-born American emigrant, operated a London-owned mining company between 1902 and 1908. Together with their Russian companions, the Fells lived cheek by jowl with nomadic tribes (this experience is described in Russian and Nomad: Tales of the Kirghiz Steppes). Her encounter with the life of nomadic tribes became a bedrock of Marian’s literary work, and influenced her perception of domestic and foreign cultures.
All images courtesy of the Jamie Vans Agnew family archiive.
Anna Maslenova is a Postgraduate Research Student on ERC-funded research project: ‘The Dark Side of Translation’ at the University of Exeter. Her academic interests are Russian literature translated into English at the end of the 19th century through to the beginning of the 20th century.
The Anglo-Russian Research Network was established in 2011 by Rebecca Beasley and Matthew Taunton to bring together research students, scholars and members of the general public interested in the influence of Russian and Soviet culture and politics in Britain in the period 1880–1950. The ARRN invites proposals for reading groups on any aspect of Anglo-Russian history of cultural relations and literary/translation/reception/art history studies during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (c. 1880–1950). To get involved, please, contact Dr Ben Phillips, Nicholas Hall or Anna Maslenova.
We understand many of our viewers have had trouble accessing events through Eventbrite. We recommend testing your access ahead of time, and if you can’t connect, message us through Eventbrite - we’d be happy to send you a direct link to the Zoom talk.