Subject
Query: Martin (or Martyn) in Podvig/Glory (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Anat Ben-Amos <abenam@essex.ac.uk>
Dear everyone,
I would very much appreciate help on certain questions relating to the
name of the protagonist of Podvig:
1) The Russian original calls him "Martyn" (Library of Congress
trasliteration), while the English translation has "Martin" - does this
seem the same to the native Russian speakers among you? And would
"Martyn" seem to a Russian reader a Russian or, as I always thought
because of "Martin" (and as is justified in the novel, with all the
Western and especially English motifs related to him), an English - and
thus, for a Russian, foreign - name?
2) In her article "Nabokov's _Glory_ and the Fairy Tale" (SEEJ, 21, 2,
1977), Edythe C. Haber mentions a Russian fairy tale character,
whom she calls either "Martin" or "Martynka", in the story "Volshebnoe
kol'tso" (she refers to Afanasiev's version in _Narodnye russkie
skazki_) . Does it mean it is the same name? Could anyone tell me more
about the exact name of this fairy tale character? (he seems to be a
version of the "Ivan-durak" character, whom she compares in some
respects to Nabokov's Martin/Martyn)
3) In the new collection of all VN stories, edited by DM, there is an
early, and if I understand right unpublished in Russian, story called
"Russian Spoken Here", in which the protagonist is called "Martin
Martinich". Is his name in the Russian original manuscript "Martin" or
"Martyn"? And does DM's translation solution mean that, again, it is the
same name, or was it for the convenience of English-speaking readers?
I would be grateful to have any of your information, thoughts and ideas
on these matters, either to the List or to me directly.
All the best,
Anat Ben-Amos
-----------------------------------
Anat Ben-Amos
Department of Literature
University of Essex
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom
E-mail: abenam@essex.ac.uk
Dear everyone,
I would very much appreciate help on certain questions relating to the
name of the protagonist of Podvig:
1) The Russian original calls him "Martyn" (Library of Congress
trasliteration), while the English translation has "Martin" - does this
seem the same to the native Russian speakers among you? And would
"Martyn" seem to a Russian reader a Russian or, as I always thought
because of "Martin" (and as is justified in the novel, with all the
Western and especially English motifs related to him), an English - and
thus, for a Russian, foreign - name?
2) In her article "Nabokov's _Glory_ and the Fairy Tale" (SEEJ, 21, 2,
1977), Edythe C. Haber mentions a Russian fairy tale character,
whom she calls either "Martin" or "Martynka", in the story "Volshebnoe
kol'tso" (she refers to Afanasiev's version in _Narodnye russkie
skazki_) . Does it mean it is the same name? Could anyone tell me more
about the exact name of this fairy tale character? (he seems to be a
version of the "Ivan-durak" character, whom she compares in some
respects to Nabokov's Martin/Martyn)
3) In the new collection of all VN stories, edited by DM, there is an
early, and if I understand right unpublished in Russian, story called
"Russian Spoken Here", in which the protagonist is called "Martin
Martinich". Is his name in the Russian original manuscript "Martin" or
"Martyn"? And does DM's translation solution mean that, again, it is the
same name, or was it for the convenience of English-speaking readers?
I would be grateful to have any of your information, thoughts and ideas
on these matters, either to the List or to me directly.
All the best,
Anat Ben-Amos
-----------------------------------
Anat Ben-Amos
Department of Literature
University of Essex
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom
E-mail: abenam@essex.ac.uk