Bratchikova N. S. Stage Translation as a Means of Preserving the Cultural Heritage of Pre-Revolutionary St. Petersburg (on the Example of Martti Wuori’s Play)

Posted on 22.09.2025 by editor

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Original article

https://doi.org/10.15507/2076-2577.017.2025.03.268-279
https://elibrary.ru/pspdxk
УДК / UDC 81’25:008

Stage Translation as a Means of Preserving the Cultural Heritage of Pre-Revolutionary St. Petersburg (on the Example of Martti Wuori’s Play)

N. S. Bratchikova
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation

 Abstract

Introduction. The multinational environment of pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg was characterized by the activity of diasporic theatrical ensembles. Their performances in native languages, adapting both national and global repertoires, played a key role in preserving cultural identity, developing educational connections, and shaping the urban social milieu. The Finno-Ugric language ensembles, by creating plays of various levels, laid the foundations of the Finnish dramatic school. The stage translation of such plays represents a variant implementation of the author’s intent, preserving culturally significant elements of Russian and Finnish realities of that era. For the first time, a comprehensive analysis of the stage translation of a play based on Finnish-language material has been carried out, with special attention to the transmission of linguistic interference. The study is motivated by the necessity of developing translation strategies for 19thcentury literary works intended for a modern audience, which require a profound understanding of the historical-linguistic context and bygone cultural realities for their adequate rendering. The aim of the research is to identify and characterize the strategies for conveying culturally specific elements of 19th century Petersburg society into Russian.

Materials and Methods. The material of the study consisted of M. Wuori’s play “The Matchmaking, or How Mother and Father Gave Their Daughter in Marriage” (Naimiskauppa, 1895) and its Russian translation. A linguistic and comparative-contrastive analysis of the translation with the original was applied, including pre-translation, cultural, contextual, semantic, and stylistic analyses aimed at identifying differences and assessing translation losses.

Results and Discussion. The analysis of the genre and stylistic features of the play determined its architectonic-verbal forms and translation strategy. The author proposes the following translation solutions: rendering the heroine’s bilingualism through archaic and colloquial vocabulary, phraseological units, and distorted forms of the Russian language; retaining foreign words in the characters’ lines as a reflection of the phenomenon of foreignomania; translating proper names with consideration of the national culture of the target audience. Generalizations for the theory and practice of stage translation are formulated: mandatory consideration of stage action (naturalness of delivery, possible text reductions or rearrangements), the necessity of cultural adaptation while preserving the author’s style and ensuring accessibility for a new audience.

Conclusion. The conclusions drawn by the author, namely the identified obligatory subordination of the linguistic system to the non-linguistic system within the framework of their joint functioning, the consideration of the audience’s experience alongside the national experience embodied in the original text, contribute to the development of the theory of theatrical translation. A promising direction is the study of artistic and expressive means for conveying the everyday life and morals of the socio-cultural environment of St. Petersburg at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Keywords: stage translation, linguistic interference,  finnish theatre, pre-revolutionary Petersburg, the language game, M. Wuori, bilingualism

Conflict of interest: The author declares no conflict of interest.

For citation: Bratchikova N.S. Stage Translation as a Means of Preserving the Cultural Heritage of Pre-Revolutionary St. Petersburg (on the Example of Martti Wuori’s Play). Finno–Ugric World. 2025;17(3):268‒279. https://doi.org/10.15507/2076-2577.017.2025.03.268-279

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Information about the author:

Nadezhda S. Bratchikova, Dr.Sci. (Philol.), Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Finno-Ugric Philology, Lomonosov Moscow State University (1 Leninskie Gory, Moscow 119991, Russian Federation), Professor of the Department of Linguistics and Professional Communication, Institute of International Relations and Social and Political Sciences, Moscow State Linguistic University (bld 1, 38 Ostozhenka St., Moscow 119034, Russian Federation), ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7402-8327, SPIN-code: 8159-6981, n.bratchikova@mail.ru

The author has read and approved the final manuscript.

Submitted 23.03.2025; revised 19.06.2025; accepted 23.06.2025.

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