Translation and Translators in Sergei Dovlatov's Literary System

This article analyses the approach of Sergei Dovlatov, exiled Russian writer of the Third Wave in the United States, to the problem of translation and the translator's figure. Using materials from Dovlatov's novellas and short stories, as well as his articles, letters, essays, and interviews, we can trace the writer's contradictory attitude towards the translation activity and his ambivalent perception of the translation profession. While highly appreciating the American translation literature, the author repeatedly downplays the importance of translations from Russian into English, thus pointing out the superiority of Russian literary translation and language over English. He offers a number of reflections on the translation of his own creative heritage, the role of translation practices within the context of Soviet literature, and the untranslatability of certain Russian words and Soviet phenomena. In the writer's prose a clear distinction is drawn between women translators, viewed as an object of male attention, and male translators, presented in the pages of Dovlatov's books as comic characters. Meanwhile, the analysis shows that in the life and work of the novelist himself we can detect some traits that are typical of the translator's profession. Our observations and conclusions about the place of translation and the figure of the translator in Dovlatov's texts are supported by research in translation studies, as well as by the publications on Dovlatov's writings.